When Gods and Demi-Gods Read
by PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase
Summary: The Gods of Mount Olympus, 9 demigods, 1 mortal and 1 Oracle come together to read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. language and romantic scenes so please advise.
1. The Beginning

**this is my first PJO fan fic. i have a bunch of Harry potter ones though. Please read and review. it takes place a year before percy goes to camp half blood. i thought it would be interesting to bring Luke into the book...let me know you're thoughts on that. luke, silena, bekendorf and the gods are all from the present and percy and his friends are from the future. got it get it good.**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

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It was the Winter Solstice and the Gods were arguing...again.

Hades and Demeter were arguing over Persephone as said goddess sat and listened to the 3 thousand year old argument.

Athena and Artemis were arguing with Hera and Aphrodite (mostly Hera) over their refusal to marry.

Appollo, Hermes, and Dionysus were arguing over the best pranks to pull over some of the demigods at Camp Half-Blood.

The throne room on Mount Olympus was filled with the sound of many voices arguing until a blinding flash of light occured and once it faded 11 people stood in the throne room with the Gods.

"Who in the name of..." Zeus said.

One of the newcomers, a boy with black hair and sea green eyes, stood up and brushed his pants off.

"I am Percy Jackson and this is..." the boy, Percy, said and Poseidon paled and glanced nervously at his two brothers.

"Wait!" Appollo said "You can't just tell us your names! We know your demigods but we don't know who your parent is! a proper introduction would be 'I'm Appollo, son of Zeus and Leto' We know nothing about you!."

"You don't know us?" Percy said.

"Are we supposed to?" Athena asked.

"Well...yeah" Percy said "We're quite famous amongst you guys."

"Well we have no idea who you are" Zeus said.

"What year is it?" Percy asked.

"2004" Hermes said.

"Well that explains it! We're from 2010!" Percy said.

"You time-traveled? Interesting" Athena said and Hephaestus nodded.

"So are you going to introduce youselves or not?!" Zeus said, getting impatient.

"Yes Lord Zeus" Percy said.

"Boy knows his manners" Zeus mumbled.

A girl with blonde hair came up beside Percy and whispered something in his ear and he nodded.

"I will not start because I have a good feeling that my identity might start a fight" Percy said and gestured to the blonde to go first.

The blonde stepped forward.

"I am Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena and the official architect of Olympus" she said.

"We do not need an architect" Ares said.

"They are from the future Ares" Athena pointed out "maybe something happened and we appointed her to be the new designer of Olympus".

"Continue half-bloods" Zeus said.

A satyr with an orange Camp Half-Blood shirt on took Annabeth's spot.

"I am Grover Underwoord, satyr and a Lord of the Wild" he said.

Zeus narrowed his eyes. "Aren't you the satyr who was supposed to escort my daughter SAFELY to Camp Half-Blood before she died and was turned into a pine tree?"

Grover paled at the mention of the failed rescue mission.

"Y-Y-Yes L-Lord Zeus" Grover said and swallowed.

"Hmph" Zeus said and Grover tripped trying to get back to his spot amoungst the other half-bloods.

"Speaking of the girl who was turned into a pinecone tree...here I am! Thalia Grace daughter of Zeus and Lieutenant of Artemis" said a girl with punk clothing and punk style black hair.

"But you're a tree!" Hera said.

"I all ready have a Lieutenant, her name is Zoe Nightshade" Artemis said.

"Long story about me coming back to life and I'm sorry Lady Artemis" Thalia bowed her head and everyone held a moments of silence for Zoe.

"How did my dear Zoe die?" Artemis asked and put her head in her hands.

"Saving you M'Lady" Thalia said.

"SAVING me?" Artemis said "From what?"

"I'll tell you later" Thalia said.

"Very well" Artemis replied.

The introductions continued with two boys who could've been twins.

"I'm Connor..."one of them said.

"And I'm Travis..." the other one said.

"Stoll" they said together as if they rehearsed it.

"Sons of Hermes" Connor said.

"Hey that's my line!" Travis said.

"Well I said it!" Connor replied and the two boys began to argue intil a girl with brown hair stepped between them.

"Will you boys stop!" she said and put her hands up and out, keeping them apart.

"I'll stop" Travis said and smiled at the girl and she returned it.

"I'm Katie Gardner, Daughter of Demeter by the wa" she put her hands down and went back to her spot where Travis fallowed her, sat next to her and put his arm around her.

Demeter raised and eyebrow at the two and Hermes gave Travis a thumbs up.

Once Connor sat down a boy with black hair and dark eyes stood up.

"I am Nico Di' Angelo, son of Hades and Ghost King" the boy said.

"You broke the oath?!" Zeus yelled at Hades but Poseidon stayed silent.

"I had Nico before I took the oath. He was one of Maria's children. Along with Bianca" Hades replied.

"I killed them! At the hotel!" Zeus said.

"No" Hades said and his eyes turned cold and black, like coal, at the memory "you only killed Maria. I was able to protect the children".

"I can't believe you broke the oath!" Zeus yelled.

"What about Thalia and Jason..."Hades said but Zeus stopped him before he could finish.

"No more Hades...say no more. We are both at fault. It would seem only Poseidon kept his word" Zeus said and sat down as Poseidon looked away.

"Who's Jason?" Thalia asked.

"Nobody" Zeus said.

"Buy Hades just mentioned a Jason" Thalia argued.

"I will discuss this matter no more!" Zeus said "continue with the introdudctions."

Thalia narrowed her eyes at her father.

Nico sat back down and a girl with choppy brown hair stood up.

"I am Clarisee La Rue, Daughter of Aes" she said.

"A child of mine! Finally!" Ares said and pumped his fist as Clarisse sat down.

A girl with frizzy red hair took her place and introduced herself.

"I am Rachel Elizabeth Dare. I am the Oracle at Camp Half-Blood" Appollo smiled at her and Hades narrowed his eyes but said nothing.

Rachel sat down agian and Percy stood back up.

"As I said before I am Percy Jackson and I am a son of Poseidon and a heroe of Olympus" Percy said and all hell let loose.

"WHAT!?" Hades and Zeus yelled as lightning cracked and a plane went down in Ohio killing all on board.

"You broke the oath?!" Zeus yelled and Poseidon jumped up.

"You have no right to yell at me brothers! You two have both had children who are hear now who are against the oath we made. I admit that it was foolish of me." Poseidon said and sat back down.

"True" Hades and Zeus said as they sat down.

"So Ol' Barnacle Beard had a sea spawn" Athena said in a whisper that of which Poseidon heard.

Athena was doused in salt water.

"POSEIDON!" she yelled and glared at im.

"Watch what you say Wise girl" Poseidon said without even looking at her. Athena glared some more.

Percy sat back down and the last person stood up to inroduce herself.

"I am Sally Jackson. Mother of Percy' she said and Poseidon looked up and smiled as the memories of that summer at Montauk came back to him. He smiled a her and she returned it.

"I still don't get why-" Athena said before she was interrupted by another light and 4 more people falling intot he room.

"Who now" Ares said.

"You know me" the woman of the group said and stood up and sat next to the hearth.

"Hello Hestia" Hera said.

"Hello fellow Olympians' Hestia said as she bowed to Zeus.

A boy with sandy hair and a scar that ran down the left side of his face stood up and introduced himself.

"I am Luke Castellan, son of Hermes" he said and the people from the future looked up and was shocked to see he wasn't lying.

"Luke" Percy whispered and he grabbed his ball point pen in his pocket and held onto it.

Luke went to sit by the other demigods he noticed Annabeth.

"Annabeth?" Luke asked and Annabeth looked at him.

"Hello Luke" she said and swallowed.

"You look different" Luke said.

"I'm from 6 years in the future" she replied.

"Who is this?" Luke asked and gestured to percy.

Annabeth answered "a friend you'll meet next summer.'

"Okay" Luke said and sat down.

Annabeth was relieved to see he was wearing his camp becklace and a camp shirt.

A pretty girl stepped up and introduced herself.

"I am Silena Beaugard, a daughter of Aphrodite" she said and grief/sorrow filled the eyes of those from the future.

Once Silena had sat down the last peron, a large, burly boy introduced himself.

"Charles Bekendorf, son of Hephaestus" he said and the time travelers were holding back tears.

Bekendorf sat down.

"Well, now that we're all aquainted, let's find out why you're here" Athena said as a book and not fell from the sky onto her lap. She read the note to herself then out loud.

"We have brought you all together to read 5 books that tell about the futre. You CANNOT change the future it has all ready been decided. DO NOT judge the people in some of the books. Here is the first book. ENJOY! Signed the Fates."

"We can't disobey the Fates" Zeus said "What is the book called?"

"Percy Jackson and the Olympian the Lightning Thief" Athena read.

Percy groaned. He didnt want people, especially the Gods, to read about his life.

"Shall I read first?" Athena asked.

"YES!" quite a few people said and Athea turned to the first page of the first chapter and began to read.

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**Please review!**


	2. I Vaporize my Pre-Algerbra teacher

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy jackson! i hope you all like it!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

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**"I Accidentally Vaporize my Pre-Algebra Teacher," **Athena read.

"How do you 'accidentally' vaporize someone?" Annabeth asked Percy.

"You'll see" he replied and winked at her.

Annabeth pouted.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"Your're not Athena" Appollo said "You're a goddess."

"It's in the reading Appollo" Athena said.

"I knew that" Apollo grumbled.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:**

**Close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

Ares grinned wickedly.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think its fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

"Spooky" Nico said and waved his fingers and people laughed.

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

"Great, this is in my point of view" Percy said.

"Now we'll know what you really think of all of us" Thalia said.

Percy had a good feeling his thoughts might get him in trouble with some people in the room.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yes" Thalia, Nico, Annabeth, Connor, Travis and Sally said.

"Thanks guys" Percy mumbled.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"He even admits it!" Annabeth said while Percy pouted.

"Meany" Percy grumbled and Annabeth laughed and put her head on his shoulder.

Athena raised her eyebrow at the two.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Sounds fun" Hermes grumbled sarcastically.

**I know—it sounds like torture.**

"Does not!" Annabeth and Athena protested.

**Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner, **

"Isn't that what you first called Chiron at Camp?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah" Percy said.

**Our Latin teacher was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons,**

"He teaches Greek demigods...not roman demigods" Athena said.

"There's a such thing as a roman demigod?" Thalia asked.

"No" Zeus replied qiuckly and Thalia narrowed her eyes at her father.

**So he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"Why would you fall asleep during any class?" Athena asked.

"Athena" Hermes said "School is as boring as one of your lectures."

Athena glared at him "You think my lectures are boring?"

"YES!" everyone said and Athena humphed and began to read again.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy was I wrong.**

"Percy, trouble fallows you where ever you go" Annabeth said and Percy pouted.

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

Everyone laughed.

"What were you aiming for?" Hermes asked.

"Nothing in particular...just an annoying group of kids" Percy said and everyone laughed again.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

"Once we take a break I wanna hear more!" Hermes said and Apollo, Ares, Poseidon, Connor, Travis and Hephaestus nodded.

"Okay" Percy said.

"Boys" Artemis mumbled and Athena and Thalia nodded their heads in agreement.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"You're a son of Kelp Brain...it's impossible for you to be good" Athena said and was doused with freezing Atlantic ocean water.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl,**

"Ugh! Not even I could fix that disaster!" Aphrodite said.

**hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Gross!" the girls all said.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.**

"Thanks Perce" Grover said sarcastically and Percy shrugged.

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

People laughed.

"What? They were good!" Grover said blushing.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension**

Hermes, Apollo, Connor and Travis all let out a small screech.

"What?!" Athena aked.

"In-school suspension" they said and cringed as the others laughed.

**if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"BORING!" People yelled.

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Do it!" Ares said.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

"Boo!" Ares said and gave a thumbs down.

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.**

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Longer than that boy" Athena said.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, steel, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

"At least you're trying" Annabeth said and Percy smiled at her.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. **

"Harlys are my ride! Not any teachers!" Ares said.

**She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"Probably caused by Mrs. Dodds" Poseidon said.

"Wait! She's married?" Aphrodite asked.

"I don't think so" Percy said.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"You poor poor thing" Hermes said.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

Poseidon eyed Hades suspiciously.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the steel,**

"No respect" Athena said.

**and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

The elder Gods shuddered at the mention of that memory of that experience.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied.**

**"And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god,**

"GOD?!" Demeter, Zeus, Hera, and Hades yelled and jumped up..

Thunder cracked in the distance.

"Peace my siblings" Poseidon said standing in front of Percy "Chiron will correct the boy."

Sally looked at Poseidon grateful that he stood up for their son..

"He better" Zeus grumbled and he and the others sat down.

**And—"**

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

"See?" Poseidon said.

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

"Because i'm amazingly awesome" Zeus said "I am the king _GOD!_"

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"Because we're amazing!" Apollo said.

The people from the future looked at each other knowing that this specific piece of history is destined to repeat itself.

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Busted!" Hermes said.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

"Great now i'm thinking like a satry" Heremes said.

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"In honesty Chiron shouldn't have asked Percy that. It only applies to him" Athena said.

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"Don't all boys?" Artemis asked and Thalia nodded.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"Older than that i believe...he was a child of kronos so yeah, older than that" Athena said.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

"Not even I could do that!" Athena said.

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the steel, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"Probably was" Zeus said.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas.**

**We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, and wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"Poseidon and Zeus are arguing again" Athena said.

"This sounds like more than a mere argument...it would seem as if they were really fighting!" Hera said.

"About what though?" Ares said.

"I don't have a clue, they just seem really angry" Artemis said and Athena's eyes went wide and she looked at Annabeth.

"The bolt?" she mouthed and Annabeth nodded slightly.

It all made sense to her now...the LIGHTNING thief...the bolt was stolen and Zeus blames Poseidon thus, the fighting.

Athena sighed.

"What is it Athena?" Zeus said.

"Nothing father" Athena replied.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse,**

"Sounds like a child of Hermes" Apollo commented and looked at Hermes who shook his head.

"She ain't mine" Hermes said.

**and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"Smart" Apollo said and Hermes nodded.

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

People laughed and Grover blushed.

"All satrys are the same" Dionysis said and took a drink of the diet Coke in his hands.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Awwwwwwwww" the girls cooed and Sally patted her son's back as Percy blushed a little.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"Nice" Annabeth said.

She noticed that Luke seemed very quiet during this book and hardly laughed at all.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

"Oooooooooh fight!" Ares said and threw his hands in the air.

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Ewwwwwwww" Aphrodite cringed.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

"Cool!" Apollo said.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

Hermes groaned.

"Never guess your punishment!" Hermes said and Conor and Travis nodded and Luke smiled.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" the girls cooed.

"What a good friend" Aphrodite said and made a mental note to give Grover a good girlfried later.

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—will—stay—here."**

"Creepy and mean" Hermes commented.

"You don't know the half of it" Percy said.

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"It's not the looks he gives his enemies that scare me" Annabeth said "It's when you get Riptide out and start using it."

People from the future nodded their heads in agreement.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"I have a good feeling that it's not the ADHD" Athena said.

**I wasn't so sure.**

"I'm thinking like him now...great" Athena grumbled and read on.

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on,**

"I did" Grover said.

**but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

"Probably not" Poseidon said.

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

"No witnesses" Ares said hoping for some action.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

"Growling?" Zeus asked.

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

"Probably did" Annabeth commented.

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"Wrong" said Nico.

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

"That's not the right answer Percy" Grover said.

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

"NICE! You smuggle it in then sell it! AWesome!" Hermes said and high-fived Percy.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"Percy it's a good book!" Annabeth said.

"I dont like reading...dislexia" Percy said.

"Oh yeah...I'm gonna get you a copy that's in ancient Greek and make you read it next summer" Annabeth said.

"Please don't" Percy said.

"I will" Annabeth answered.

Percy sighed but didn't argue.

"Fine I'll read it" Percy said "For you."

"Awwwww thank you!" Annabeth said and kissed his cheek before leaning on him again and he put his arm around her. This time Poseidon AND Athena noticed and raised an eyebrow.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"YOU SENT A FURY AFTER HIM?!" Poseidon yelled at Hades and a squall of boats went down in the Atlantic region.

"And what if I did?" Hades challenged him.

"I'll send you to Tarturas" Poseidon said.

"I won't allow you into the Underworld" Hades replied.

"I will keep you in a prison under the sea for all eternity!" Poseidon said and San Fransisco had and Earthquake.

"Oh" Hades said and didn't argue because he didn't feel like it.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

Percy smiled.

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"Riptide" Percy said and took out his pen and clicked it.

Percy was holding his best weapon and a dangerous piece of celstial bronze.

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous loo****k in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"Wimp" Ares said and Poseidon didn't do anything because he was clutching his trident and was as pale as a ghost as was Sally.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

"You killed a fury on the first swing?" Ares asked and gave Percy a high-five and Hades narrowed his eyes at Percy.

Poseidon and Sally's colors were coming back to them.

"**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

The half-bloods shivered.

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"Magic mushrooms?" Hera asked and Percy shrugged.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"The Mist" Appllo grumbled to himself.

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

"Now you look stupid" Ares said.

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"Satyrs are terrible liars'' Dionysus said.

"Especially Goat Boy here" Thalia said and everyone laughed.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

"Only Chiron" Annabeth said.

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Chrion is such a good liar" Percy said.

"End of the chapter" Athena said "Us Gods have to finish our solstice so if you half-bloods don't mind...go away."

* * *

**Please review.!**


	3. Young Love

**So very proud of this chapter...enjoy!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

The demigods left the throne room to allow the Gods to finish their Solstice.

"This is going to be interesting" Annabeth said.

"No, I'm gonna get in trouble!" Percy said and annabeth laughed and kissed him.

Luke narrowed his eyes at the two.

"Gross!" Connor said and people laughed.

"I hate how everyone has their boyfriend or girlfriend here but me" Clarisse said.

"What do you mean Clarisse?" Annabeth asked.

"You and Percy, Travis and Katie, Silena and Bekendorf..." Clarisse said and Silena and Bekendorf looked at each other.

"Clarisse! Don't say anything about the future to those three!" Annabeth said gesturing to Luke, Silena and Bekendorf.

"Well sorry" Clarisse said.

"I hated it when I had to tell Lady Artemis that Zoe died" Thalia said and sat down.

"Yeah...that's gotta be hard" Annabeth said.

"But hey! When you told everyone that you're Thalia their faces were priceless!" Percy said, trying to lighten the mood, and the people who heard her introduction smiled.

"It was hilarious...I thought Hera was gonna pass out or something!" Thalia said.

"Wait!" Luke said and the people from the future looked at him trying to hide disgust.

"You're Thalia Grace Daughter of Zeus?" Luke asked.

"Yeah" Thalia said.

"How is that possible?! You were turned into a tree!" Luke said.

"Percy brought me back with the Golden Fleece" Thalia said and Annabeth elbowed her.

"OW!" Thalia complained.

"Nothing about the future!" Annabeth said.

"So I'm not allowed to say anything about Kronos, you and Percy dating, the Labyrinth, you and Percy kissing in the lake, the war, you and Percy dating..." Thalia said.

"NO!" Annabeth said and blushed.

"You're dating him?" Luke asked and pointed at Percy, who was also blushing.

"Yeah" Annabeth said avoiding his eyes.

"What about a war?" Bekendorf asked.

"Nothing...I'm not allowed to tell you" Thalia said.

"Good Gods Thalia you're gonna get in trouble!" Annabeth said.

Thalia stuck her tongue at Annabeth.

I'm gonna take a walk...Percy you wanna come?" Annabeth said.

"Of course" Percy said and he and Annabeth left.

"They'll probably end up making out in a pond somewhere" Thalia said and people from the future laughed.

"Except this time we won't throw them in!" Connor said.

Everyone laughed except for Luke.

"Why aren't you laughing?" Thalia asked him.

Luke shrugged "I don't know who that Percy guy is."

"You'll meet him next summer" Thalia said and took out her bow.

"Where do I fall into in the future?" Luke asked and Thalia looked scared.

"If I told you Annabeth would kill me!" Thalia said.

"I won't tell her" Luke said.

"No" Thalia said.

"Will anyone else tell me?" Luke said and the people from the future shook their heads.

"Why not?!" Luke protested.

"We can't..."Thalia said and she blinked back tears.

"Fine" Luke got up and went up the path that Percy and Annabeth went up.

Thalia cried.

* * *

Percy and Annabeth were walking and holding hands.

"It's hard him being here Percy" Annabeth said.

"I know" Percy said trying to comfort her.

"It's hard to look at him and not see Kronos" Annabeth said and they stopped walking.

"Hey" Percy said "look at me" he lifted Annabeth's chin with his hand and saw tears in her eyes.

"He died a hero. Don't forget that. He was the hero of Olympus, he killed Kronos" Percy said and wiped the tears from her face.

Annabeth nodded her head and hugged him "I love you."

"I love you too" he said and kissed her full on the lips.

After their kiss, Percy took Annabeth's hand.

"I think we should go back" Percy whispered in her ear and she pouted.

"I don't want to, I wanna stay with you forever" Annabeth said and Percy pulled her into a hug.

They stood there for a while with their arms around each other until Percy looked up and saw a shooting star.

"Hey" he whispered and pointed up as more shooting stars fell "make a wish."

Annabeth closed her eyes and made a wish.

"What did you wish for?" Percy asked.

"Can't tell you" she said and pulled him towards a patch of grass.

Percy layed down and Annabeth layed beside him and they intertwined their hands as they watched the shooting stars fall from the heavens.

Little did they know that Luke saw the whole thing.

* * *

The Gods came out of the throne room just as Percy and Annabeth reappeared with Luke behind them.

"I think we should all have dinner before we continue with the story" Athena said and everyone nodded in agreement.

All the demigods and Gods went into the Olympian kitchen where Hestia had prepared a whole buffet for them. Percy and Annabeth sat next to each other and Luke sat across from them.

"Did anyone see the shooting stars?" Percy asked.

"No" Thalia said "You saw shooting stars?"

"Yeah" Annabeth said "when me and Percy were walking."

"Okay! I can't take it!" Athena said and everyone looked at her in surprise "Are you two dating?" she was pointing at Percy and Annabeth.

The couple looked at each other and Annabeth spoke.

"Yes Mother" Annabeth said.

"No!" Athena and Poseidon said.

"You can't date his son!" Athena said pointing at Poseidon.

"You can't date her daughter!" Poseidon said pointing at Athena.

"But-" Percy and Annabeth began before they were cut off.

"Athena! Poseidon!" it was Aphrodite who said it "Percy and Annabeth are in love! Can't you see that! See that your children are happy together. Also, you're trying to mess with love, which is my realm, so back off!"

Everyone stared at her is surprise as she turned to Percy and Annabeth.

"You two saw shooting stars?!" Aphrodite asked.

"Yeah..." Percy said.

"Those shooting stars only appear to couples truly in love" Aphrodite said "The last couple they appeared to was actually Ariadne and Dionysus!"

Dionysus blushed.

"They appear all the time to Hera and Zeus...me and...yeah" Aphrodite said.

"You and who?" Ares asked and Hephaestus became interested.

"Um..." Aphrodite said.

"Please tell me" Ares pleaded.

"Fine! Hephaestus...they appear to me and Hephaestus!" Ares looked at his brother in shock!

People's jaws dropped.

"Oh come on!" Aphrodite said "I would not have married him if I didn't love him!"

"You two never show affection to each other!" Athena said.

"Because I like to lead you astray!" Aphrodite said and people soon realized who she was sitting by...Hephaestus.

Everyone decided to let it drop and went back to their own conversations as they ate.

* * *

**I have fun writing these stories and I thought it would be a good idea to make Aphrodite look like someone who doesn't break boys' hearts! Thoughts on that...btw luke was hoping that Athena would forbid Annabeth from seeing percy but it didnt work out that way did it? ;) review please...check out my poll.**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	4. Old Ladies Knit The Socks of Death

**i love this chapter and am so very proud of it...i didnt notice till the ned of this capter that sally had been very quiet.**

**please read and review**

**I was gonna wait till i had 20 people vote on my poll to post this chapter but I got too many review saying update so i decided that the people you vote for are going to come on on the next book**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

**"**Who wants to read next?" Athena asked and Poseidon raised his hand.

"As long as my son doesn't die" Poseidon said.

Luke raised an eyebrow.

_"Could it be that a God actually CARES about their child?!"_ he thought to himself.

Percy smiled knowing his father cared about him.

Poseidon opened the book to the next chapter and began to read.

**"Three Old Ladies Knit Socks of death"**

"I just had to choose the chapter that had death in the title" Poseidon said.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr-a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"Gotta love the Mist" Apollo mused.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would st are at me like I was psycho.**

"Well..." Thalia and Nico.

Annabeth looked at them and they shut up.

"I'm the only one who gets to call Percy a psycho" Annabeth said and Percy pouted.

**It got so I almost believed them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

"20 Drachmas that it's Grover" Hermes challenged Apollo.

"You're on!" Apollo said.

"Idiots!" Artemis mumbled and Hestia nodded her head in agreement..

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

"Pay up!" Hermes said and Apollo handed him 20 drachmas while Artemis and Hestia shook their heads..

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

"Satyrs suck at lying" Dionysus said.

"I'm surprised you're paying attention" Zeus said and Dionysus shrugged.

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

"Uh no duh!" Thalia said and earned a glare from Percy which she just shrugged off.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"Creepy" Thalia said.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"You guys are pissed!" Ares said and earned a smack on the head by Hestia.

"OW!" Ares complained.

"Watch your language" Hestia said.

"Sorry"Ares said though he didn't sound sorry at all.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

Athena looked horrified and Annabeth just sighed.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends.**

"Fist fights or just arguments?" Ares asked.

"Arguments" Percy said and Ares looked disappointed.

**I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot.**

Everyone laughed.

"Only you Seaweed Brain" Annabeth said and Percy blushed.

**I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

"Paul's not bad" Annabeth said.

"This was the one before Paul" Percy said.

"I remember him!" Grover said and looked at Percy with sympathy.

**And yet… there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.  
**

"Thanks man" Grover said.

"Any time G-man" Percy said.

**I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

"Good boy" Thalia said.

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"Thank Gods!" Annabeth said.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.**

"WHAT?!" Athena screamed and glass shattered everywhere on the streets beneath Olympus.

"How dare you treat a book like that?!" Athena said "Annabeth! How could you like someone who treats a book like that?!"

"I never knew" Annabeth said and turned to Percy.

"Perseus Jackson, why in the name of Hades would you throw a book?!" Annabeth said and Percy tried to answer but she was on a roll "especially one about Greek Mythology. There's no respect for our history!"

"Um...Annabeth" Percy said "I didn't know I was a son of the sea God and my dislexia was acting up so I was frustrated and I couldn't take it and..."

Annabeth kissed him.

"Sorry" Percy said and Annabeth laughed and leaned against him and put her head on his chest and he put his arm around her. Athena glared at the sight.

"_Why a son of Barnacle Beard?! Why not a son of Hermes?!" _Athena thought.

**Words had started swimming off the page,**

"Swimming?" Athena asked.

Percy shrugged "I guess I relate a lot of stuff to water."

**circling my** **head,**** the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

"Now you do" Annabeth said.

"What do you mean 'Now you do?" Poseidon asked losing color.

"Well he's been to the Underworld more than once...the first time we went there we went through Charon" Annabeth said and people gasped.

"Percy?" Athena asked.

"Yeah?" Percy replied.

"How are you still alive?" Athena asked and Percy shrugged.

"I'm skilled" Percy replied.

**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"That is hard" Annabeth said.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

"I get that feeling when I read" Travis said.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes.**

"Older" Annabeth and Athena said.

**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

"How about being the best at sword fighting?" Nico asked and Luke raised an eyebrow.

"Or how about best at being stupid and annoying?" Thalia joked.

"Totally" Nico said.

"You're good at sword fighting?" Luke asked.

"Good?!" Nico said.

"How about the best?" Annabeth said.

Percy blushed a little.

"Yeah I'm good" Percy said.

"I'm pretty good myself" Luke answered "How about the next break we see who's better?"

Luke smirked.

"You're going down" Percy said.

Hermes turned to Apollo.

"20 drachmas that Luke wins" he said.

"I'll take that bet!" Apollo said and shook hands with Hermes.

"My money's on Percy" Nico said and soon everyone was betting with someone else... Hermes and Apollo, Athena and Poseidon, Nico and Thalia, Annabeth and Connor, Zeus and Hades, and Grover and Travis.

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"Awwwwwwww" the girls cooed.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "… worried about Percy, sir."**

"Cue eavesdropping Percy" thalia said.

Percy pouted and everyone laughed.

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"Pft!" Thalia said and Percy glared at her.

"You don't scare me Percy!" Thalia said.

"Oh really?" Percy asked and took out Riptide.

Thalia looked at the blade.

"You touch me I'll zap you" Thalia said but her voice shook.

"Good luck with that one" Percy replied with an evil glint in his eyes.

Thalia stuck her tongue out at him.

Percy put Riptide away and Thalia let out a breath she had been holding.

"_Oh thank Gods!" _she thought.

"Thalia, you're afraid of Percy?" Annabeth asked.

"Yes" Thalia said "When he uses Riptide he's like a blur of destruction, you saw that during the Titan war..." Thalia covered her mouth.

"Titan War?" the Gods asked.

"Maybe it'll explain in this book or another book" Annabeth said but Athena still looked really worried.

"I'll tell you later" Annabeth mouthed but Poseidon noticed but said nothing.

"Also Percy's powers...you know making hurricanes and controlling water, well tose powers trump mine. Water is more powerful then lightning and he can make storms happen and yeah...he scares me."

"HA!" Poseidon said and everyone looked at him.

"What? I've been telling Zeus that I'm more powerful for eons!" Poseidon said "and now his daughter admits that the powers I gave to Percy are better than the ones her father gave to her."

Poseidon continued to read.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"Poitn made" Nico said.

**I inched closer.**

**"… alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline- "**

"What's the summer soltice deadline?" Zeus asked.

The people from the future just shook their heads.

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he saw her… ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I … I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

Thalia put a comforting hand on Grover's shoulder.

"I made the choice" she said and Grover nodded.

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"NO!" Apollo and Hermes yelled in unision.

"What?" Athena asked.

"Rule number uno!" Hermes yelled at hid kids "Go!"

"Never give away your position" the Hermes kids all said together.

Everyone laughed.

"How do you know that. I would've been confused at what he meant" Percy said.

"All Hermes kids are born with the rules of mischief known to them" Travis said.

"Like pranks, how to not get caught when stealing" Luke said.

"And when to tell the truth and when not to"Connor said.

Hermes looked at his children with pride shining in his eyes.

He especially looked at Luke.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"Good" Hermes said and Percy looked confused.

"Rule number 2: always get away as soon as possible" Luke murmered in his ear.

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"He's in Centaur form" Annabeth said.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

"Rule number 123: hide if you might get caught soon" Hermes said.

"How many rules are there?" Annabeth asked.

"365" Hermes, Luke, Connor, and Travis all said in unision.

"Wow" Annabeth said.

Connor leaned over to Travis.

"It's nice to see Luke again, as our counselor and brother and friend" he said and Travis nodded.

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

"What happened?!" Artemis asked.

Future people shook their heads.

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn …"**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

"Rule number 79: Wait until you KNOW the coast is clear" Hermes said.

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just… tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

"He still read it no doubt" Nico said and Grover nodded.

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

Apollo and Hermes screamed.

"What is it now?" Zeus asked.

""THREE HOURS!" they duo cried "THAT'S TORTURE!"

"Hey idiots!" Artemis yelled "I want to read the book."

"Don't call us idiots" Apollo said "Cause you know you love us little sis."

An arrow wizzed right pass Apollo's ear and he caught it.

"Nice try" Apollo said and shot it back into Artemis' quiver, which was in her room...at least a mile away.

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's … it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her ****lips.**

"I hate her" was heard all raround the room.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean …" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

"You took that the wrong way didn't you?" Annabeth said.

"Yes" Percy said.

**My eyes stung.**

"Wimp" Ares said and was doused with icy salt water.

"Hey Kelp Breath! I'd like to stay dry" he yelled to a laughing Poseidon.

"It wasn't me...it was Percy"Poseidon said between laughs.

Ares glared at Percy.

"Where did you get the water from?" Athena asked.

"Another one of my powers...I'm tied to the water so I have it with me when I need it" Percy said.

"Cool" Apollo said.

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say … you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.**

**"Percy-"**

**But I was already gone.**

"Also, Percy has a short temper" Thalia said.

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"Tell me boy" Zeus said "Do we look like nobodies?"

"I didn't know!" Percy said putting his hands up in defense.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

"They seem nice" Annabeth said.

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"I take it back" Annabeth said.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

"Coincidence" someone said.

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"**O**h great Percy!" Thalia said "Just give your best friend a heart attack!"

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"NO!" Hermes yelled.

"Rule number 3!"

"Never confess!" Hermes kids coroused.

"Thank you!" Hermes said.

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

"Now Percy's gonna lie and say he only eard a little bit when in reality he heard everything" Thalia said.

**"Oh … not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

"See?" Thalia said and Percy pouted as everyone else lauged.

**He winced. "Look, Percy … I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

"Gover" Travis said outting his hand on one shoulder "You suck at lying."

"Which is why we're giving you lessons" Connor said and put a hand on his other shoulder.

"Grover turned his head to each side to look at each of them, a look of pure terror on his face.

**"Grover-"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and …"**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"Your best friend agrees with us" Travis said.

"Thanks Perce" Grover said sarcastically.

"Sorry about that G-man" Percy said.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

"Why do you do that to the poor demigods?" Athena asked Dionysus.

"I think it's funny watching them try and read it" Dionysus replied.

"No!" Zeus said "From now on the cards you make will be in fine bold print."

"Yes father" Dionysus mumbled.

**"What's Half-"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um … summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or … or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"Harsh" Hermes said.

"Sorry man" Percy said and Grover shrugged.

"It's fine."

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

"Bad luck" Apollo said.

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

Annabeth looked at er boyfriend.

"YOU SAW THE FATES AND NEVER TOLD ME!?" she screamed and smacked his arm numerous times.

"I" smack "didn't" smack "think" smack "you" smack "needed" he grabbed her hand "to know." Percy said between the smacks e got on his arm.

"That's important need-to-know information" Annabeth said and hugged him.

He hugged her back and Aphrodite squeled.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

No one wanted to interupt this part.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all" Annabeth said deadly serious

"I didn't know!" Percy said.

**"Not funny,** **Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

Poseidon stopped reading and Ares took the book and continued for him.

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"GO!" Sally and Poseidon yelled all color gone from their faces.

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.**

"Again I ask" Athena said "How are you still alive?"

This time Percy just shrugged.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be f****or-Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

"No, no, no, no, no," Poseidon said.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like … Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"No Percy. They are muc much MUCH worse!" Annabeth sadid.

**His** **expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

"Quit blaming yourslef!" Thalia said.

"Sorry" Grover said.

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

"**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

"He didnt do it did he?" Thalia asked.

Grover shook his head.

"Don't you think there was a reason?" Annabeth said.

"He was creeping me out" Percy said.

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"Thats it" Ares said "I'll read next because I all ready have the book."

"It can wait till tomorrow though" Athena said "We all need to sleep."

She poofed the demigods to their rooms where they fell asleep instantly

* * *

**in 3 more chapters you'll see the epic sword fight between Luke and Percy...who's gonna win?**

**Check out my poll! Please review!**


	5. Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants

**Remember to check out my poll and review my story! Happy Thanksgiving!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

**Grover Unexpectedly Loses his Pants **Ares read.

"Only you Grover" Thalia said shaking her head and Grover blushed.

Everyone laughed.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"Seaweed Brain" Annabeth said.

"He was freaking me out!" Percy said.

"Sorry man" Grover said and Percy shrugged.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"**

"Again! My choice!" Thalia said.

"Sorry" Grover said.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth** **and First," I told the driver.**

Travis and Connor looked at each other.

Percy glared at them.

"If you go any where near my house I'll personly..." he said and the Stoll brothers looked at each other.

"Never mind" they said.

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"The best" Annabeth said.

"Amazing" Thalia said.

"Best cook" Nico said.

"Nicest lady in the world" Annabeth said.

"Best mom ever" Percy said.

"Beautiful" Poseidon said.

Sally blushed and smiled at their comments.

"Thank you guys" she said.

"It's the truth" Nico said.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

**Her own parents died in a plane crash **

Poseidon glared at Zeus.

Zeus shifted uncomfortably in his throne.

"Jerk" Hera said.

"Sorry" Zeus said, his apology was aimed at Sally.

"It's okay" Sally said.

**when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care ****of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

Athena frowned.

_"Every person should have a right to get a diploma"_ she thought and made a mental note to make so se got her diploma.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww'' Aprodited cooed wile Poseidon and Percy blushed.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"Or sitting on his throne on Mount Olympus" Poseidon said.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"Understatement" Annabeth said while percy pouted.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk.**** When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

"Yuck!" everyone said.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along … well, when I came home is a good example.**

Annabeth narrowed her eyes and Grover clenched his fists.

Percy looked down.

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

"Pig sty" Nico said.

"Nico! Don't insult pigs!" Thalia said and everyone laughed.

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

"What in the name of Hades?!" Hera screamed "He asked you for money?!"

"He always did" Percy said.

"Percy, why didn't you tell me?" Sally said.

"I guess I was afraid" Percy said.

"Oh Percy" Sally said and hugged her son.

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something. **

Aphrodie shuddered.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

"That's why I was scared" Percy said.

People clenched heir teeth together.

"Did he ever hit you?" Annabeth said through her clenched teeth and her eyes were closed..

Percy hesitated then answered, "Yes."

Annabeth looked murderous and so did Sally.

"Why didn't you tell me!?" Sally, Grover and Annabeth said.

"I didn't want him to hurt me..bad" Pecy said.

Annabeth held Percy's hand determined not to let go.

Poseidon clenched his trident so hard his knuckles turned whte as he glared at the book in Ares hands.

Somewhere in California a storm was brewing.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"At least there's someone who's halfway decent" Hera said.

**"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

"Gross!" Aphrodite said.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

Aphrodite scrunched her face up.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

"Gotta love Percy's sarcasm" Nico said trying to lessen the tension.

It sorta worked, everyone laughed except Poseidon, Annabeth and Sally who still had their hands clenched into fists.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic-how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone-something-was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

Percy shivered.

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" the girls cooed.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

"Percy," Sally said "I love you!"

"I love you too mom" Percy said and smiled.

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

"Bro!" The Stoll brothers yelled "Iwant your mom Percy!"

"Sorry guys" Percy said "She's mine!"

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sou****r strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

Ares was about to say something until Poseidon glared at him.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

Percy smiled.

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally-how about some bean dip, huh?"**

People clentched their teeth and Poseidon looked murderous.

**I gritted my teeth.**

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

"Oh Percy" Sally said.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum …**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

"Don't lie!" surprisingly it came from Hermes and his kids.

"What did you say?'' Apollo said looking completely bewildered.

"Rule number 365 is..." Hermes said gesturing for his kids to finish.

"Never lie to mom!" he kids chourosed.

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"It wouldn't because she knows you're a demigod and she can see through the Mist" Poseidon said.

"I didn't know" Percy said.

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

**"Three nights-same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

"He probably gambled it away" Hera mumbled.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

"Asshole" someone said.

**I wanted to punch him,**

"Do it!" Ares and Clarrisse shouted.

Percy raised an eyebrow at Clarrisse who just shrugged.

"I'm sick and tired of this guy" she said and everyone turned back to the book.

**but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

"He better" Poseidon growled.

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"Gotta love sweet sweet bribery" Hermes said and his kids nodded their heads

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip … it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"What?!" Aphrodite yelled "You can't put a budget on clothes!"

"Mortals have to because they don't have an endless supply of money like you do, dear" Hephaestus said.

"Oh, I guess you have a point" Aphrodite answered.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip … And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game." **

"Apologize?" Athena said "He paid for it! You stupid pig!"

"Mom, don't insult pigs...it's not nice" Annabeth said.

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought.**

"You should have done it" Ares said.

**And make you sing soprano for a week.**

Apollo shuddered "It would be funny but I would stab my ears out. His singing would suck!"

Everyone laughed.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

"I was doing it to protect you" Sally said.

"I know mom" Percy said "Thank you."

"Smart woman" Athena said "How did you find a smart woman Poseidon?"

Poseidon shrugged "I got lucky."

"Did she know you were a God?" Zeus asked.

"She found out about 2 weeks into that summer."

"How?" Athena asked Sally.

"I would say something about how the water was too cold and the water would suddenly turn warm. I also caught him talking to a shark" Sally said and people laughed.

"What made you think he was a Greek God" Athena asked.

"I put two and two together" Sally said "He seemed to control the water, because the water never touched him and wen we went swimming he came out completely dry. He also talked a lot about Greek myths. I asked him who his favorite God was and he said Poseidon and I knew."

"Okay she's really smart!" Athena said.

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"What brain?" Artemis asked.

"The pea sized one" Percy said and everyone laughed.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about… whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes-the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride-as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro-for the whole weekend.**

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"As if he'll be driving" Athena said.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve.**

**But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

"Jerk" people said.

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. **

"Talk about powerful" Athena said.

"Exactly! That's how powerful he is! More powerful than me" Thalia said.

**Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets**

Annabeth shuddered at the mention of spiders.

"I'm guessing you don't go there?" Travis asked.

"I've been there once and I made him clean it all out first" Annabeth said.

**, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

**I loved the place.**

Sally and Poseidon and Percy smiled.

"I love it tere too" Poseidon said.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" Aprodite cooed and Poseidon and Sally blushed.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

"I think that's what drawed me to her" Poseidon said "It seemed like she was connected to the sea."

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"Why the blue food?" Athena asked.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.****See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano-was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

"So he gets it from Poseidon AND Sally!" Thalia said.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind wheneve****r we came to Montauk-my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

Annabeth smiled.

"I love his green eyes" Annabeth said.

"He also gets his power from his father" Clarrisse said.

"Like becoming one with bathroom fixtures?" Connor joked and everyone from the future was trying not to laugh.

"You'll be lucky if I dont run you through with my spear" Clarrisse said and Connor gulped.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

"I am" Poseidon said.

Percy smiled and Luke narrowed his eyes.

"I make you prouder in the future" Percy said.

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"I don't care about that" Poseidon said.

"I know that now Dad" Percy said.

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean … when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But… he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

"I visited you in your crib without your mother knowing one night" Poseidon said "I knew you make me proud one day."

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember … something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me …**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

Poseidon bowed his head.

_"It would seem he actually cares"_ Luke thought.

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think … I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

"Harsh" Hermes and Apollo said.

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"At least he regrets it" Athena said.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said-that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"Again, understatement!" Thalia said.

"I'm normal!" Percy complained

"No you're not" The future people said and Percy pouted.

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me-all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

"I was probably checking on you. I'm sorry if it scared you" Poseidon said.

"It's fine" Percy said.

**Before that-a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

People looked at Hera.

"What?!" she asked "I only did that with Heracles and if I did do something like that it would be a child of Zeus not Poseidon."

People went back to the book.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy-the place your father wanted to send you. And I just… I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

CAMP HALF-BLOOD! WOOOOOO!" The Stoll broters yelled and threw their hands up in the air.

"Who would've guessed that the place your mom didn't want to send you would become your favorite place ever" Annabeth said.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad-who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born- talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp …"**

"Not for me" Annabeth said and the year rounders nodded.

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

"I hate those dreams" Percy shuddered.

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse**

"Me" Poseidon said.

**and a golden eagle,**

"Me" Zeus said.

**were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. **

"What are you fighting over?!" Artemis asked.

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

"I win!" Zeus said and threw his hands in the air.

Artemis rolled er eyes.

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

Annabeth leaned closer to Percy.

"Is this the Minotaur?" she whispered in his ear.

Percy nodded sligtly and put his arm around her when she sighed.

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't… he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"You fallowed them?" Thalia asked.

"I had to find Percy and get him to camp" Grover said.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror-not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be … where his legs should be …**

"I'm so confused" Apollo wailed.

"Think about the title" Artemis said.

"Oh...'' Apollo said.

"You still don't get it do you?" Artemis asked hima and he shook his head.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tel****l me now!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro-but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"Ohhhhhh" Apollo said.

Ares held up the book.

"Who wants to read next?" he asked and surprisingly it was Aphrodite who raised her hand.

* * *

**Im so happy i got a chapter finished! check out my poll! i wont add the people till i get 20 people to respond to it! please reiew**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	6. My Mom Teaches Me Bull Fighting

**im so happy! got 2 chapters up in one day! read and review! check out my poll! still need like 10 people to vote before i bring more people in!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

**" My mother Teaches me bullfighting" **Aprodite said and Poseidon paled.

"You can bull fight?" Ares asked Sally.

Sally closed her eyes and shook her head.

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

"I drive like that!" Ares said.

"And thats why I'm always repairing your bike" Hephaestus said and Ares glared at him.

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants.**

**But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo- lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom… know each other?"**

"Straight forward aren't ya?" Thalia asked

Percy just shrudgged.

**Graver's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

"Stalker" the Stoll brothers said.

Annabeth looked at Katie wo nodded and hit the broters upside the back of their heads.

"OW!" they complained.

**"Watching me?"**

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

**"Urn … what are you, exactly?"**

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey-"**

"Not gonna like that" Dionysus said.

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"**

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

**"Goat!" he cried.**

"You just said it didn't matter" Thalia said.

**"What?"**

**"I'm a goat from the waist down."**

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

"Now you're thinking like me" Prcy said.

"Im gonna blame that on the fact that our dads are brothers" Thalia said.

Everyone laughed, well except for Poseidon.

**"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"**

**"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like … Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"**

**"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

"Just won't let it go" Thalia said shaking her head.

"I thought I was going insane!" Percy said.

**"Of course."**

**"Then why-"**

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

**"Who I-wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

Poseidon glared at Hades who srank back in is seat.

**"Grover!"**

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

"Why do you have a sign?" Athena asked.

"This sign in particular is not for Camp" Annabeth said.

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

"Why do you have to make everything harder" Nico said.

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means-the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to … when someone's about to die."**

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in me."**

**"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."**

"Wow! I got lost" Hermes said and Apollo nodded his head in agreement.

**"Boys!" my mom said.**

"Thank you!" Artemis said.

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid-a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

"Probably an eagle" Poseidon growled and glared at Zeus while the King of Olympus shrank down in his seat.

**"What was that?" I asked.**

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

"Please, please, please..." Poseidon chanted.

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

Annabeth was leaning forward too.

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness-the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

"No shit" Thalia said.

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner … and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.**

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"I'm okay… ."**

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning.**

"I swear on the River Styx that if any of them die I will in prison you under the ocean for so long that you will fade into nothing down there" Poseidon growled and Zeus shrank down a little more after each word.

**That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

"Thanks man" Gorver said.

"Any time" Percy replied.

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

People laughed.

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to …" Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

Athena glanced at Percy in realization.

"Is it the Minotaur?" she asked soundlessly. Percy nodded slightly.

**I swallowed hard. "Who is-"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy-you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

**"What?"**

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

"Me" Thalia said sadly and Annabeth put a hand on her shoulder.

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

**"Mom, you're coming too."**

"Loyal" Artemis mused. Sally had eher eyes closed.

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

**"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands-huge meaty hands-were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head … was his head. And the points that looked like horns …**

Poseidon gasped in realization.

"You fought the Minotaur?!" he asked.

Percy nodded and everyon else gasped.

"How are you alive?" Athena asked.

Percy shrugged again.

**"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

**"But…"**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then-mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

**"I told you-"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

"You're very loyal" Artemis said.

"It's my fatal flaw...personal loyalty" Percy said "Or so Athena says."

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.**

"Dionysus" Zeus started.

"Yes father?" the god of wine asked.

"When you get back you will have that grass cut" Zeus said.

"Yes father" Dionysus replied.

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine-bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear-I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms-which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

"Uh...gross" Aphrodite interrupted her own reading.

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

"Only you would be thinking that" Thalia said.

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's-"**

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

"She is very smart" Athena said.

**"But he's the Min-"**

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

"How did you get a smart woman?!" Athena asked Poseidon.

Poseidon shrugged and Sally still had her eyes closed tightly.

**The pine tree was still way too far-a hundred yards uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows-or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

Thalia shook her head at Grover.

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

_"Very smart"_ Athena thought _"She really deserves a diploma."_

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, th****e chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

"HA" Connor and Travis said "Thats what you get you stupid asshole!"

"CONNOR! TRAVIS! LANGUAGE!"Katie yelled.

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.**

**Oops.**

"Wow Percy just wow" Thalia said.

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way- directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

"How do you know all this?!" Athena asked but Sally still had her eyes closed tightliy shut.

**"How do you know all this?"**

"Great now I think like Sea Spawn" Athena said and closed her eyes waiting for the water but it never came.

She looked up to see Poseidon, pale as a ghost, clutching his trident, Percy tightly closing his eyes and it would seem like a tear went down his cheek and Sally who had her eyes closed tightly shut and was shaking her head.

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

**"Keeping me near you? But-"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.**

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right-it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

No one commented because they were all holding a breath.

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

"No" Poseidon said.

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

"Run Percy" Poseidon said and Annabeth was clutching Percy's hand so hard it was blue and purple.

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

"No!" Poseidon whispered.

**"Mom!"**

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, **

"NO!" Poseidon wailed and he started to cry.

Everyone was crying or was in shock.

Sally had tears streaming down her face.

Annabeth had her arms around Percy and was wispering reassuring words into his ear.

**melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply … gone.**

**"No!"**

"And now Percy kicks the monster's ugly ass" Nico said.

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs-the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.**

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn't allow that.**

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea-a stupid idea,**

**but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

"Why do I have a good feeling that didn't happen" Annabeth said.

**But it didn't happen like that.**

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

**Time slowed down.**

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

"How did you do that?!" Athena asked.

Annabeth realized something.

"It was raining right?" she asked.

"Yeah" Percy mumbled.

"The water" she said and Poseidon looked up, his face tear streaked.

"What do you mean the water?" he asked.

"The rain water...it gave Percy more strength" Annabeth said.

"I never thought about that" Percy said.

"That's why I'm the smart one" Annabeth said.

"You sure are" Percy said and smiled.

**How did I do that? **

"Again, I am thinking like Sea Spawn" Athena mumbled.

**I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

"Ow" Apollo said.

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

The girls wrinkled their noses.

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

**"Food!" Grover moaned.**

Weak chuckles were heard around the room, people were still getting over the shock of Sally.

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might.**

"You're not that strong kid" Ares said.

Percy just smirked.

**The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then-snap!**

"Damn" Ares said andPErcy smirke again.

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate-not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

"So he kills a Fury on his first swing and he kills the Minotaur on his first try" Bekendorf said "Dang you're good."

**The monster was gone.**

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover-I wasn't going to let him go.**

Everyone bowed their heads in respect.

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.**

"Like a princess you say?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah" Percy said and Annabeth kissed him.

**They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

"Yes Annabeth" Connor said "He is the one."

"Shut up" Annabeth was blushing.

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

"Done" Aphrodite said, her face was streaked with makeup from her crying but with a snap of her fingers her make up perfected itself agian.

"Who wants to read next?" she asked and Percy raised his hand. Percy took the book from the goddess and opened up to the next chapter.

"After this chapter" Percy said "Me and You" he was pointing at Luke.

"Deal" Luke said.

* * *

**one more chapter till the epic sword fight! please review and vote on my poll. Poseidon still loves Sally how sweet!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	7. I Play Pinochle With a Horse

**last chapter till the sword fight! please review and check out my poll!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

**"****I Play Pinochle With a Horse,"** Percy read.

**I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.**

"That's a weird dream even for a demigod" Annabeth said.

"Yeah, I don't know were it came from" Percy said.

**I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.**

"So what are you doing there Annabeth?" Thalia joked.

"Feeding im ambrosia" Annabeth said and blushed.

"Are you sure thats it?" Nico said.

"It wasn't like that!" Annabeth protested and blushed some more, Percy was also blushing.

"Right" Thalia and Nico said dragging out their 'I'

**When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"**

"You actually thought he knew someting?" Thalia asked.

Annabeth shrugged.

**I managed to croak, "What?"**

**She looked around, as if afraid someone would overhear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"**

"Stolen?" Zeus said and widened his eyes in realization.

"_The LIGHTNING theif"_ he thought.

"YOU DARE STEAL MY MASTER BOLT!" Zeus yelled at Percy.

Those who haven't figured it out gasped.

"I didn't steal it!" Percy said.

Zeus turned to Poseidon.

"IS IT NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU TO RULE ALL THE SEAS?! WHY WOULD STEAL MY MASTER BOLT" Zeus thundered and ligtning flashed.

"Peace broter" Poseidon said "I would never steal your bolt."

Zeus glared at Hades and almost said something before Percy interrupted.

"Lord Zeus" Percy said "Hades or Poseidon did not steal the Bolt. I cannot tell you who did though."

"So be it" Zeus said and sat down, his bolt flashed into his hand and lightning flashed in the distance .

He gestured for Percy to read.

**"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't…"**

**Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.**

"And thats how you shut Percy up" Nico said.

"Shut up" Percy said.

**The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.**

"He missed you" Thalia said in a fake lovey-dovey voice.

Percy and Annabeth blushed.

**A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes- at least a dozen of them-on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.**

"Argus" Hera smiled remembering her old friend.

**When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.**

"Ow."

**On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.**

**My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

"Wimp" Ares said and he was dousd with water.

"Whic one of you did it?!" Ares said pointing at Percy and Poseidon who were both laughing.

Percy shook his head and Poseidon raised his hand.

Ares glared at the Sea God and gestured for Percy to read on.

**"Careful," a familiar voice said.**

**Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.**

"That's his nickname though" Talia said.

**So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And …**

"Poor boy" someone muttered.

**"You saved my life," Grover said. "I… well, the least I could do … I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."**

**Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.**

**Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.**"

"I hated that" Percy said.

"What?" Annabeth asked.

"When I realized that it wasn't a dream" Percy said.

Annabeth hugged him and he kissed the top of her head while Aphrodite squirmed in her seat.

**"The Minotaur," I said.**

**"Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea-"**

"Listen to Goat Boy" Thalia said.

**"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."**

**Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"**

**"My mom. Is she really …"**

**He looked down.**

**I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

"What's THAT supposed to mean?" Thalia said dangerously, her eyes flashed like a streak of lightning down the center.

"You'll see" Percy said.

**My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

"Oh" Thalia said "Sorry."

Percy shrugged.

**"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm-I'm the worst satyr in the world."**

"No you're not!" Annabeth, Percy, Luke, Thalia, and Nico said.

"I just realized something" Grover said completely ignoring the demigods' protests.

"That you're the best satyr ever?!" Percy.

"No" Grover said and smilied "I was the one who found all of the children of the Big 3. I found Percy, son of Poseidon, Talia, daughter of Zeus, and Nico and...um.."

"Bianca" Nico said and looked down.

"I knew her name I just didn't want to say it cause I didn't want to hurt you" Grover said.

"Thanks" Nico said.

"Nico and Bianca Di'Angelo, children of Hades" Grover said.

"You did! Because you're an amzing satyr" Percy said.

"But each rescue mission went wrong! Thalia got turned into a tree! You got your mom taken and I lost you in New York! And we lost Annabeth when we went to get Nico and Bianca!" Grover said.

The 3 people, that he complained about, began to protest.

"I made the choice!"

"I was the one who left you in New York!"

"I knew the risks and you guys got me back!"

Grover blushed.

"Best Satyr ever" Percy said once the voices died down and the demigods nodded.

"Thanks guys" Grover said and gestured to Percy to read.

**He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.**

**"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.**

**Thunder rolled across the clear sky.**

**As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it.**

**Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head.**

Please don't" Grover said because of the looks on the Stoll brothers face.

**I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with … Smelly Gabe? No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.**

**Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid-poor goat, satyr, whatever-looked as if he expected to be hit.**

**I said, "It wasn't your fault."**

**"Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you."**

Percy was about to say something but Grover stopped him.

"I know it was your fault" he said and Percy continued toread.

**"Did my mother ask you to protect me?"**

**"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least… I was."**

**"But why …" I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.**

**"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.**

**I recoiled at the taste,**

"Why? It's delicious" Connor said.

**because I was expecting apple juice. **

"Oh" Connor answered.

**It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies-my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.**

"Awwwww" Hera cooed.

**Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.**

**"Was it good?" Grover asked.**

**I nodded.**

**"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.**

**"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."**

"NO!" everyone shouted.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know!" Percy said.

"You don't know a lot of things then huh Percy?" Rachel said and the future demigods jumped, they forgot that their Oracle was there.

**His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just… wondered."**

**"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Homemade."**

**He sighed. "And how do you feel?"**

**"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."**

"Wow" Thalia said shaking her head.

**"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff"**

**"What do you mean?"**

**He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."**

**The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.**

**My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.**

Everyone looked down.

**As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.**

**We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture-an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena-except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.**

"I love camp" All the demigods said.

"We do too" the gods said and the demigods looked at them weird.

"We like it because we know our children are safe there and the other camp..." Hermes said but clamped is mouth shut after he realized he said to much.

"There's another camp?" Percy asked.

"No" Zeus said.

"But Hermes just said..." Zeus cut Percy off.

"There is no Roman camp" Zeus said and it wasn't until later that Percy realized, no one said anything about Roman.

**Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.**

"He reconized you!" Aphrodite squeled and the Percabeth couple blushed.

**The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels- what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.**

"Why you little..." Dionysus said glaring at Percy while the Gods laughed.

"He got the description perfectly!" Apollo joked.

**He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my stepfather.**

"Anyone could" Nico said.

**"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron… ."**

**He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.**

**First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.**

**"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.**

**The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.**

"Gotta love Chiron" Hermes said.

**"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."**

**He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."**

"What a joyful soul you are Dionysus" Apollo joked.

**"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from l****iving with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.**

"Oh he's no stranger" Zeus said.

**"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.**

"I'm still the blonde girl" Annabeth said.

"Not any more" Percy said and kissed her.

**She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. ****Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."**

"Wooooooo!" Connor and Travis said and threw their hands in the air "Go Hermes cabin!"

Luke laughed.

**Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."**

**She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.**

"He went into detail with your description Annabeth" Nico said.

Annabeth blushed.

"Shut up" she said and Percy was also blushing.

**She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a minotaur! or Wow, you're so awesome! or something like that.**

"Ego alert!" Thalia joked and Percy stuck his tongue at her.

**Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."**

Everyone laughed.

"Amazing!" Thalia said.

Percy pouted and Annabeth laleaned into him as he put his arm around her and she tucked her feet under her.

**Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.**

Aphrodite was smiling like an idiot and was squirming inher seat still.

**"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"**

**"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex-Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym.**

"A what?" Connor asked.

**You may call me Chiron."**

**"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D … does that stand for something?"**

**Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."**

"Rude" Demeter said and Dionysus shrugged.

**"Oh. Right. Sorry."**

"You proabably weren't sorry" Thalia said and Percy shook his head.

**"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."**

**"House call?"**

**"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to … ah, take a leave of absence."**

"I wonder how he did that" Connor wondered.

**I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.**

People raised an eyebrow.

**"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.**

**Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."**

**"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"**

"Wow!" Apollo said shaking his head.

**"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.**

"He should be afraid!" Dionysus said and Grover nodded his head.

"Y-Y-Y-Yes s-s-s-sir" Grover stuttered.

**"You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.**

**"I'm afraid not," I said.**

**"I'm afraid not, sir," he said.**

**"Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.**

"No one likes him Percy" Luke said.

"My son likes me!" Dionysus said "And the satyrs! Right Grover?!"

"Yes sir" Grover nodded.

**"Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules."**

**"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.**

**"Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun-Chiron-why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?"**

"Full of yourself much?" Thalia asked and Nico snorted trying to old in a laugh.

"Did you two tema up to pick on me and Annabeth?" Percy askednThalia and Nico.

"Yes" they said together.

"But we're also gonna pick on Grover" Thalia said.

**Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question."**

**The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.**

"You are very afraid" Katie observed.

Grover just shrugged.

**Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, I was his star student. He expected me to have the right answer.**

"Awwwww" some girls cooed.

**"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?'**

**"She said …" I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."**

"She was right, I never want to leave but I somehow do" Percy said.

**"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?"**

**"What?" I asked.**

**He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.**

"Very short tempered aren't ya Mr. D?" Apollo snickered.

"Brother," Dionysus said "Unless you want me to turn you into a grape vine for a millenia...be quiet!"

Apollo shut up.

**"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."**

"You've never seen the orientation film?" Annabeth asked.

"I have...like 3 years after my first year" Percy said.

**"Orientation film?" I asked.**

**"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know"-he pointed to the horn in the shoe box-"that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods-the forces you call the Greek gods-are very much alive."**

**I stared at the others around the table.**

**I waited for somebody to yell, Not! But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.**

**"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"**

"Wow Grover, just wow" Talia said shaking her head.

**"Eh? Oh, all right."**

**Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.**

**"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as God."**

**"Well, now," Chiron said. "God-capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."**

**"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about-"**

**"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."**

"Smaller?!" Zeus said.

**"Smaller?"**

"Great I am thinking like sea spawn" Zeus said and Athena smirked at Poseidon and held up a 2 and Poseidon glared at her.

**"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."**

**"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."**

"Woo!" Apollo said and jumped up "I'm mentioned!"

"Sit down before you get an arrow through your thick head." Artemis said.

**And there it was again-distant thunder on a cloudless day.**

**"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."**

**"But they're stories," I said. "They're-myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."**

"He ain't gonna like that" Bekendorf said.

**"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson"-I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody-"what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals-they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come so-o-o far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."**

**I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if… he wasn't.**

"I'm not" Dionysus

**It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.**

**"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"**

"Sounds like a good deal" Connor said.

The Gods shook their heads.

"It's not" one of them said.

**I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.**

**"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.**

"Oh" Connor said.

**"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"**

Everyone winced.

**My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him.**

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Gods and Goddesses" Thalia said "the only time Percy controlled his anger!"

She was doused with icy cold water.

"Percy!" Thalia yelled and the lightning was back in her eyes.

"Yes dear cousin" Percy asked and Thalia punched his arm and an eletrical shock went through him.

"OW!" Percy complained.

"It's what you get" Thalia said.

Apollo turned to Hermes.

"Who do you think would win in a fight? Percy or Thalia" he asked.

"Thalia hands down" Hermes said.

"Really?" Apollo asked.

"She is child of Zeus" Hermes replied.

"But water trumps eletric" Apollo said.

"Guess we'll never know" Hermes said.

**I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."**

**"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."**

**Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."**

**"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe.'"**

**He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.**

**My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.**

People laughed as they imagined the look on Percy's afec, well except for Zeus who was glaring at his son.

**"Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."**

**Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.**

"You probably did it on purpose to show him who you were then acted as if it was an accident" Athena said.

**"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"**

**More thunder.**

**Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.**

**Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."**

**"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.**

**"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. **

"I AM the God of justice"Zeus said "And when I say off limits I mean OFF-LIMITS!"

Dionysus nodded.

**The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time-well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away-the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair."**

"I think it's fair" some people murmered.

**Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.**

"You might as well be one" Zeus said.

**"And …" I stammered, "your father is …"**

**"Di immortales, Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."**

**I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.**

**"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."**

"No really?" Thalia asked.

"I thought he was Aphrodite" Nico said.

**Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"**

**"Y-yes, Mr. D."**

**"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"**

"Wow I'm thinking like him...not a good sign" Nico said.

**"You're a god."**

**"Yes, child."**

**"A god. You."**

Everyone laughed.

**He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.**

"That is why dear demigods, you dont push my buttons" Dionysus said and glared at the campers.

**"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.**

**"No. No, sir."**

**The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."**

"YES! I FINALLY WON!" Dionysus said.

Percy smirked.

**"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."**

"veryone laughed as Dionysus slouched back and grumbled something about cheating horses.

**I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too.**

**"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."**

"It was my choice" Thalia shot at Dionysus and her eyes did the lightning thing again.

**Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."**

**Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners."**

"Does he ever?" Nico asked and Annabeth sook his head.

**He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.**

**"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.**

**Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been … ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."**

**"Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"**

**"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."**

**"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like … in America?"**

**"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."**

"Now for clueless Percy" Nico said and everyone laughed as Percy pouted.

**"The what?"**

**"Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know-or as I hope you know, since you passed my course-the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps-Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on-but the same forces, the same gods."**

**"And then they died."**

"Look at me boy" Zeus said and Percy looked.

"Do I look dead?" Zeus asked and Percy said.

"No sir."

"There are some people I wish could die so I wouldn't have to deal with them" Athena said and the Gods nodded their heads each looking at someone different.

**"Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, **

"I loved France" Aphrodite said.

"Why?" Athena asked.

"Paris! The city of Love and the place is beautiful!" Aphrodite said.

**to Spain,**

"I like Spain" Demeter said.

"Why?" Atena asked.

Demeter shrugged.

"I don't know" she answered.

**for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture. People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not-and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either-America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."**

**It was all too much, especially the fact that I seemed to be included in Chiron's we, as if I were part of some club.**

**"Who are you, Chiron? Who … who am I?"**

"Dramatic!" Thalia said.

**Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.**

**"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be s'mores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."**

"Only Chiron" Annabeth said, smiling and shaking her head.

**And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear,**

People lauged.

**but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.**

**I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.**

**"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."**

Percy marked the page.

"Done" he said "Luke! Ready to be beat?"

"I'm so gonna win" Luke answered and everyone left the throne room to watch the epic sword fight talking to the person they made a bet with.

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**yes! i cant wait to write the sword fight chapter! Happy thanksgiving! please review! i was reported btw but i refuse to abandon this story to satisfy this site! please dont report me...i don't copy it word for word i change it up a bit and there are other stories like mine out there.**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	8. Sword Fights and Funny Strories

**hope you guys like it! please review and check out my poll! I know we've all been waiting to read the epic sword fight so here it is! pleasetell me your thoughts on it.**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

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Everyone filed out side and stood in a circle as Luke and Percy stepped forward.

"You're so going down" Luke said and drew his sword.

"I doubt that" Percy said and brought Riptide out and took the cap off.

"I'll try not to stab you too much" Luke said.

Percy shrugged.

"Won't hurt" he said.

"Acting all big and tuff eh?" Luke said.

"Nah...I bear the curse of Achilles. You gotta hit my weak point" Percy said and Poseidon looked confused.

"Ready?" Luke asked an Percy nodded.

Luke went for a low strike but before he even hit him Percy put Riptide down blocking Luke's blade.

Percy countered with a lunge toward the chest which Luke deflected.

Each boy went to lunge at the same time but their swords hit in mid air making a clanging sound that rang out through Olympus.

Luke swiped and Percy backed away.

Percy lunged for Luke's mid-section but Luke side-stpped easily and swiped at Percy but Percy turned quickly and blocked the on coming blade.

"Woooo!" the people betting on Percy cheered but their cheers died down when Percy tripped and fell on his back. and Luke had his sword pointed over his chest.

"I win" Luke said with a smile and Percy smiled back.

"In your dreams" Percy brought Riptide up and knocked it into Lukes sword sending the point away from his chest.

He held the sword until he could get up and then he let go and jumped back as Luke swiped.

Luke's face was screwed up in concentration as was Percy's.

Percy tried to get in close but Luke saw what he was trying to do and refused to let him in.

Luke lunged and Percy blocked it with Riptide.

Luke tried to get in close but the closer he got the more Percy would block.

Everyone's eyes were watching intently.

Athena couldn't help but keep thinking of what she would've done.

Luke couldn't take it, he lunged forward and Percy caught the bottom of his blade with the bottom of Riptide and twisted.

Before Luke could do anything about it Percy but all his weight into a downward thrust and Luke's sword clattered out of his hands to the stone ground.

Percy had the point of Riptide and inch away from Luke's undefended chest.

Percy smiled a victorious smile and lowered is sword.

Luke smiled back and picked up his blade.

"You are good" Luke said and shook Percy's hand.

"Haven't dueled like that in a while" Percy said.

All around them people where taking money and a few other things from others.

Luke shook his head smiling.

Percy laughed as he watched the people who put money on him take their money.

Apollo collected 20 drachmas from a mad Hermes.

Annabeth got 5 drachmas from a grumbling Connor.

Zeus was smirking as Hades passed him 25 drachmas.

Nico was laughing as Thalia grumble and dug out the 5 drachmas she bet.

Poseiodn was smiking and laughing as Athena handed him 40 drachmas.

Grover was collecting his drachmas from Travis and an IOU note.

"Now lets have lunch!" Hestia said.

They all sat down at the table and the demigods burnt their usual offerings.

Once everyone was settled chatter started up.

"I still wanna hear about your feild trip incidents Percy" Hermes said and a few others tuned in.

"Okay" Percy said and took a bit of pizza "In third grade we went to go pick apples at an orchard. We had to stay in groups of 5. My group was me, these boys named John, Liam and Sam and a girl named Lisa. We ventured to the end of the line of trees. I picked up and apple and John dared me to throw it as high as I can, I did. The apple came back down but not straight. The wind blew it and it ended up hitting a woman on the head."

People laughed.

"Then Lisa told me that she didn't think I could hit the scool buses tire. So I decided I was gonna try to prove her wrong and I threw the apple but it didnt hi the tire, it hit the window and went trough the other side and hit the water container we took with us. The water and ice spilled EVERYWHERe and people bagan to slip and slide on the ice and our chaperone was walking to help a kid up when another kid knocked into her sending down the hill like a mud slide where she hit a car and got knocked out and set the alarm off."

"It was only funny because we all hated that teacher and she looked like a mud monster when she was done and she also got a toothe knocked out. I only got in trouble because Lisa told the principal and HE didn't think it was funny."

Everyone was laughing.

"I remember only one other time. Second grade, we went to a farm where they had cows and horses and sheep. Anyway we were allowed to pick some fresh corn and make maracas out of the actuall corn. I made my maraca and was watching the cows eat their grass when my friend came up beside me ad scared me. I jumped back and hit the bell that called the cows in. The cows all started running towards the bell and the broke dow the fece that held them. They started running all over the farm and the scared the horses which went ito a frenzy and eventually we had a stampede of animals running aroud the farm, knocking down teachers and students and farmers. It didn't stop until after we left and it wasn't before my teacher got knocked into a pile of manure. Hilarious! My friend told everyone it was my fault so I got in troulbe" Percy said ad the people listenig to him all laughed at the images.

Annabeth was explaining to her mother the Titan war when Poseidon joined them.

"I saw you tell your mother that you were going to tell her about the Titan War, Thalia mentioned, later. Please tell me" he said.

Annaebth nodded and told the 2 Olympians that a demigod would renounce the Gods and would convince other demigods to do it as well. They pledged themselves to Kronos and fought for him. They raised an army of demigods who felt betrayed by their parents and the ones who were stuck in Hermes cabin because there were no cabins in honor of their parents, monsters and other Titans. Eventually the demigod who strarted it gave his body up to Kronos and Kronos took the demigod's body over. She told them how Typhon was released and how the Gods were to fight him and would not be able to defend Olympus from Kronos so the demigods defended it with Percy as their leader.

"So your boyfriend" Athena wrinkled her nose at the word boyfriend "is to save Olympus?"

Annabeth nodded.

"This book is only the beginning" Annaebth said and went to sit by her said boyfriend as he told stories.

Once everyone was fed Athena suggested they read one more chapter then sleep.

"Who will read?" Athena asked and Annabeth said she would.

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**please review ad tell me your thoughts on his stories and on the sword fight!**

**check out my poll!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	9. I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom

**disclaimer: i do not o****wn PJO**

**please review and i decided to add the new comers in now because I was tired of waiting...18 people...ill put another poll up tomorrow. the rate im going you should have the next chapter by tomorrow! Bye enjoy**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

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**"**Once everyone was settled into their seats in the throne room Annabeth picked up the book when a blinding light filled the room.

"More visitors?!" Athena asked and once the light died down 9 people were standing in the throne room.

"Who are you?" Zeus asked and a man in a wheelchair rolled forward.

"Chiron!" the kids from Camp Half-Blood yelled and Chiron smiled at them, especially Percy.

"It's good to see you back my boy" Chiron said, talking to Percy.

"I don't know what you mean" Percy said and Chiron wheeled himself over to his students.

"Well introduce yourselves" Zeus said to the newcomers.

A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes stepped forward and introduced himself.

"I am Jason Grace, son of Jupiter praetor of Camp Jupiter" he said and Thalia widened her eyes.

_"It couldn't be him"_ she thought _"mother said he died."_

Before anyone could say anything a girl with eyes like pure gold, not like that of a Titan's, came forward.

"I am Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto" she said and stepped forward so another boy could take her spot.

"I am Frank Zhang, son of Mars" he said.

"What are _Romans _doing here" Athena asked her nose wrinkled in disgust at the word _Roman._

"I have no idea why we are here" Jason said.

"I hope there is a reason. Greeks and Roman do not mix" Athena said.

"There are Greeks here" Hazel asked and looked around.

"The people all around you are Greek. We the Gods are in our Greek forms" Zeus said.

Percy noticed that the gods' form were flickering, possibly to their Roman form.

"Do you know the Greek terms for your Roman Gods?" Athena asked.

Jason nodded.

"Zeus is Jupiter, Poseidon is Neptune, Hephaestus is Vulcan, etc." he said.

Hazel leaned over and asked Jason something and he told her later.

"Are you from the future?" Zeus asked.

"Winter of 2011" Jason said.

Piper, Leo, Hazel, and Frank said "summer of 2011."

Aphrodite twirled her finger behind her back, she noticed Piper staring at Jason.

Jason stood at attention and stood beside Piper. **(A/N: Aphrodite made it so that jason thought he was goint out with piper he just doesn;t remember ever meeting her...its complicated...aphrodite's complicated.)**

"Very well, continue" Zeus said and a boy with black hair and very hyper came forward.

"Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus, head of my cabin" he said and Bekendorf eyed him wondering why he was not head but dismissed it.

_"Must've challenged me and I lost_" he thought.

A very pretty girl came forward, her eyes changed color.

"Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite and head of Aphrodite cabin" she said and Aphrodite smiled at her when Silena looked her over.

_"I am head of our cabin" _she thought.

A man with salt-pepper hair came forward.

"Uh" he scratched the back of his head "Paul Blofis, I am not a demigod, I am married to a demigod's mother."

Percy stood up.

"He's my step-dad" he said.

"Percy?" Paul asked and saw Sally whereas Poseidon narrowed his eyes.

Jason looked at Percy.

_"He's the famous Percy Jackson the Camp is trying to find?"_ he thought.

Paul went to sit by Sally who was glancing nervously between him and Poseidon.

Another teenage boy came forward and introduced himself.

"Chris Rodriguez, son of Hermes"he said and went to sit by Clarisse who entwined her hand, secretly, with his.

Finally a girl in a hunter's outfit came forward.

"Bianca Di' Angelo" she said "Daughter of Hades and a Hunter of Artemis."

Nico's eyes widened at his sister.

"Bianca?" he asked.

"Nico?" Bianca said "You look older than last time I saw you."

"What year is it?" Nico asked his sister.

"2008" Bianca asked and before he could stop himself he flung at his sister and hugged her.

"Nico?" she asked.

"I'm from 2012 Bianca" Nico said and his voice cracked and he had tears in his eyes "and you died in 2008."

Bianca's eyes were full of tears as she hugged him.

"If what you say is true Nico, I'm so sorry" she said.

Nico pulled away and Bianca looked her brother over.

"You've grown so much in just 2 years" Bianca said "you look older than 12. You look a little dangerous."

"You won't believe what I've been through" Nico said as Hades joined them he also had tears in his eyes.

"I have not seen my children in so long" he said "since your mother died."

Hades then did the unexpected, he hugged his two children in front of all the gods.

Nico and Bianca hugged their dad back and Zeus was looking down in guilt.

_"I wish I hadn't killed their mother"_ he thought.

Hera was smiling. Her favorite thing in the world was a god being reunited with his children.

She gave the gods their children and they repay her by abandoning them.

Nico and Bianca left to go sit by their demigod friends and Hades went back to his throne.

They demigods from 2010 introduced themselves as the ones from 2011 narrowed/widened their eyes at them.

"Can we please read?" Athena asked and everyone settled down, after a briefing of what they've read, to read the book.

**"I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom," **Annabeth read.

Everyone laughed.

"I have a good feeling this is going to be a funny chapter" Nico said as he wiped a tear from his face.

**Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back-end the way I trusted his front.**

"Sorry Chiron" Percy said.

Chiron shrugged "Understandable."

Everyone laughed.

**We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's him."**

Chris smiled.

"I remember that!" Travis said "I was expecting you to do a flip or something!"

Percy blushed.

**Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.**

"Cause Travis did expect you to do a flip" Connor laughed.

"Can you do a flip?" Travis asked.

"No" Percy said and Travis's face fell.

**I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized-four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.**

"The Oracle?" Luke asked.

"Don't talk about me with that tone of disgust" Rachel said.

"Different Oracle" Annabeth murmured.

"Oh" Rachel said.

**"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.**

**He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."**

**"Somebody lives there?"**

**"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."**

_"He technically didn't lie"_ Annabeth said.

**I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.**

**"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."**

"You might want to work out that" Connor said.

"I tried" Chiron said.

**We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.**

"I can't do that yet" Grover mumbled.

"When was the last time you tried?" Percy asked.

"I don't remember" Grover said.

"As a Lord of the Wild, you should be able to do that now" Percy said.

"I'll try it later" Grover said.

**Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."**

**He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.**

"Because Father loves to REALLY punish me" Dionysus said and got a glare from his father which caused him to shrink down into his seat.

**I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music.**

"No" Grover said.

"Cause you haven't tried in a long time" Percy said and Grover blushed.

**I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.**

"I'm not _that_ mean" Dionysus said.

"You can't seem to remember any of our names though" Percy mumbled and the demigods, from Camp  
Half-Blood nodded.

**"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean … he was a good protector. Really."**

"Thanks, Perce." Grover said turning to Percy.

"Anytime G-man" Percy replied.

**Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."**

**"But he did that!"**

**"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate … ah … fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."**

"I'm sorry Grover" Chiron said and Grover shrugged.

"You were right" Grover said.

**I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.**

**"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"**

Thalia, Luke, Annabeth, and Grover flinched.

"Was his second time" Thalia said and looked down.

**Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age… ."**

**"How old is he?"**

**"Oh, twenty-eight."**

"Really?!" Leo asked and Grover let out a bleated laugh.

"32 actually" Grover replied.

"Nuh uh" Leo said.

"Yeah huh" Grover said and Leo's jaw dropped.

**"What! And he's in sixth grade?"**

**"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."**

**"That's horrible."**

"Tests are the worst" Grover said.

**"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer,**

"Late bloomer?" Leo asked.

**even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career… ."**

**"That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"**

**Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"**

"You are really bad at that" Travis said.

"I now" Chiron said.

**But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea-a tiny, hopeful fire-started forming in my mind.**

**"Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real …"**

"Please don't Percy" Sally said and Paul squeezed her hand.

**"Yes, child?"**

**"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"**

"Don't think like that boy" Hades said.

**Chiron's expression darkened.**

**"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now … until we know more … I would urge you to put that out of your mind."**

**"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"**

**"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods."**

"Can I give you lessons?!" Travis said and Chiron nodded.

"YES!" Travis said.

"5 drachmas that you can't teach him" Connor said and Travis said "You're on!"

"Boys" Artemis murmured and a bunch of girls nodded.

**As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.**

**Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."**

**"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"**

"Dumb question" Annabeth said and Percy pouted.

**"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"**

**"My own?"**

"Why would he have one? Leo asked.

"I came with a weapon" Annabeth said and brought out her bronze knife.

"I came with my own sheild" Thalia said and opened Aegis and it took all of everyone's willpower not to scoot away from the hideous face.

**"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armory later."**

"I'm not even sure what size fits me" Percy said.

"Size 6" Chiron said.

**I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much), **

"I don't" Chiron said.

**the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.**

**"Sword and spear fights?" I asked.**

**"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."**

"Yes Clarisse" Travis said and everyone looked at her.

"I've only sent like 4 people to the infirmary" Clarisse said.

**Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.**

**"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.**

**Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird. "We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject.**

"Good choice" Annabeth said.

**Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.**

"I meant that none of them matched" Percy said because he was getting glares from a bunch of Gods and Goddesses.

**Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. **

"Mine" Hephaestus, Bekendorf, and Leo said at the same time and smiled.

**Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. **

"Mine" Demeter and Katie said.

**Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at.**

"Mine" Apollo said and smiled.

**They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).**

"Never seen ya play" Nico commented.

"Yeah Percy" Thalia joked.

"Shut up you two" Percy said.

**In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined firepit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.**

"You saw me?" Hestia asked.

"Yes...I just didn't stop to speak to you, I'm sorry" Percy said and Hestia shrugged.

"No one does" Hestia said.

**The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. **

"Mine" Zeus and Thalia said and Zeus felt a twinge of pride that his daughter called the temple hers.

**Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.**

"Mine" Hera said and smiled "And it'll always be empty."

**"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.**

**"Correct," Chiron said.**

**"Their cabins look empty."**

"As they should be." Hera grumbled glaring at Thalia.

**"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."**

**Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot.**

"Never thought about it that way" Hermes commented.

**Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty?**

**I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.**

Poseidon smiled.

"Of course you would stop there" Annabeth said and smiled.

**It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peaked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"**

"You should have let him!" Poseidon said.

"I did not know he was your son Lord Poseidon" Chiron said.

**Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy."**

Thalia and Nico sighed knowing that it was hard to live alone.

**Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.**

**Number five was bright red-a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared.**

"My cabin" Ares said.

**The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.**

"Me" Clarisse said.

**I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed.**

**"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."**

"I love the Party Ponies" Apollo said and Hermes nodded his head in agreement.

**"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really …"**

**He smiled down at me. "The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am."**

"Why would you say Hercules?" Zeus asked.

"He's the most popular hero" Chiron said.

**"But, shouldn't you be dead?"**

"Only you Percy" Thalia joked and Percy pouted.

**Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. The truth is, I can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish … and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."**

**I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list.**

"Me neither" everyone said except Athena.

**"Doesn't it ever get boring?"**

**"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."**

**"Why depressing?"**

"Are you that thick?!" Thalia asked.

"Well his head is full of kelp" Athena mused and was doused in salt water again.

"Who did it?!" She said glaring at the two sea oriented people in the room as everyone laughed, except for Annabeth.

Percy and Poseidon raised their hands as Athena glared some more.

Hermes gave Percy a thumbs up.

**Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again.**

**"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."**

"Of course she is." Travis said and Katie hit him upside the head.

**The blond girl I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.**

"Go Hermes cabin!" The sons of Hermes and Hermes himself yelled.

**When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled.**

"I was not!" Annabeth said.

"What were you thinking about?" Nico asked.

"How cute he was" Annabeth said.

**I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek. There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book.**

"Of course" Annabeth said.

**"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"**

**"Yes, sir."**

**"Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."**

**Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it… ? **

"A caduceus!" Hermes cried.

**A caduceus.**

**Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.**

"True" Hermes kids said.

**Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.**

**"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner."**

**He galloped away toward the archery range.**

**I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools.**

**"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."**

**So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself. **

"Naturally" Thalia said "Clumsy Percy."

Percy pouted and everyone else laughed.

**There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.**

**Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven.**

**"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.**

"That was me." Chris admitted.

**I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined."**

**Everybody groaned.**

"No spirit" Hermes said shaking his head.

**A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."**

"And there's Luke" Thalia said.

**The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.**

Luke touched his old scar.

**"This is Luke," Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing.**

"I Was not!" Annabeth said while she turned bright red and Luke blushed too..

**She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor for now."**

**"For now?" I asked.**

**"You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."**

**I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.**

"Don't you dare!" Hermes said "He paid for that horn the hard way."

"We didn't even try dad" Connor said.

**I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.**

"I was" Travis and Connor said.

**"How long will I be here?" I asked.**

**"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."**

**"How long will that take?"**

**The campers all laughed.**

"That was mean" Thalia said and the Hermes kids shrugged.

**"Come on," Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court."**

**"I've already seen it."**

**"Come on." She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind me.**

**When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."**

"They start out hating each other then they turn out like that!" Thalia said gesturing to Annabeth who had her head on Percy's chest and Percy had his arms around her.

Aphrodite squeled and squirmed in her seat.

**"What?"**

**She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."**

"He is the one" Travis said and Annaeth blushed.

"I know" Annabeth said and looked up to kiss Percy.

**"What's your problem?" I was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy-"**

**"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"**

**"To get killed?"**

**"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"**

**I shook my head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories …"**

**"Yes."**

**"Then there's only one."**

**"Yes."**

**"And he died, like, a gajillion**

"Not a word" Athena mumbled.

**years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So …"**

**"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."**

"Clears it up" Travis said.

**"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."**

**"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form."**

**I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword-"**

"It's not accident when you kill a monster" Nico said.

**"The Fur … I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."**

**"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"**

**"You talk in your sleep."**

"Awww, you watch him while he sleeps" Aphrodite cooed and the Percabeth couple blushed.

**"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"**

**Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her. "You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."**

"We call the FURIES the Kindly Ones? Percy said "Now how does that make sense?"

**"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" I sounded whiny, even to myself, but right then I didn't care. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."**

**I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or … your parent."**

**She stared at me, waiting for me to get it.**

**"My mom is Sally Jackson," I said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."**

Poseidon looked down even though Sally was sitting right there and Paul squeezed her hand.

**"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."**

**"He's dead. I never knew him."**

"Yeah I'm totally dead" Poseidon said.

**Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids.**

"It seems like I'm the one who explains it to every new kid" Annabeth said.

**"Your father's not dead, Percy."**

**"How can you say that? You know him?"**

**"No, of course not."**

"You're confusing him!" Connor said.

**"Then how can you say-"**

**"Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."**

**"You don't know anything about me."**

**"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."**

**"How-"**

**"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."**

**I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?"**

"Why do you have to embarrass the guy?" Leo joked.

**"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD-you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."**

**"You sound like you've been throught it before"**

"Well all have" Thalia murmered and the demigods all nodded.

**"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."**

**"Ambrosia and nectar."**

**"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood."**

**A half-blood.**

**I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.**

"I would've started with, Who is my dad?" Travis said.

**Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"**

**I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.**

Everyone looked at Charisse.

**"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"**

**"Sure, Miss Princess," **

"Second person who's called me Princess!" Annabeth said.

**the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."**

**"Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, which I somehow understood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. "You don't stand a chance."**

"It is." Annabeth informed.

**"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"**

**"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."**

**I blinked. "Like … the war god?"**

"Gotta problem with that?" Ares asked.

**Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"**

Ares smiled at his daughter.

**"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."**

"You got told!" Connor said but shut up when Clarisse glared at him.

**Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."**

"She still calls me Prissy" Percy said.

**"Percy."**

**"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."**

**"Clarisse-" Annabeth tried to say.**

**"Stay out of it, wise girl."**

**Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep.**

**I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.**

Poseidon looked mad.

**I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking-as much as I could think with Clarisse ripping my hair out-that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.**

Everyone started laughing.

"Why were you thinking that?!" Thalia asked.

"ADHD" Percy said.

**Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.**

**"Like he's 'Big Three' material,"**

"He is" Poseidon said.

"I know that now" Clarisse said.

**Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."**

"Pushing it" Percy said.

**Her friends snickered.**

**Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.**

"No I wasn't" Anna beth said.

"Yeah you were." Clarisse said and everyone laughed.

Annabeth pouted.

**Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.**

"Wow" Thalia said "Stubborn."

**Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach.**

Poseidon smiled.

**I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.**

"Yeah!" Travis said.

"I love you man!" Connor said.

"I wish I would've seen that" Leo said.

**I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt. The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.**

**She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her. But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.**

Everyone laughing harder as Clarisse glared at them.

**As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.**

**The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared. She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock.**

**I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.**

"How awesome!" Leo said.

"It is" Percy said.

**I stood up, my legs shaky.**

**Annabeth said, "How did you …"**

"Son of Poseidon"Percy said.

**"I don't know."**

**We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."**

**I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."**

"Burn!" the Stoll Borthers said and Clarisse glared at them.

**Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.**

"How many people did it take to drag her away?" Travis asked.

"6" Annabeth and Percy said.

**Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her.**

"Grossed out" Annabeth said.

**"What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"**

**"I'm thinking," she said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."**

"End of chapter" Annabeth said.

"Bed time!" Athena said and poofed the demigods to their rooms where they instantly fell asleep.

* * *

**i hope you like the story! please review. **

**ATTENTION!: NEW POLL IS UP! IF YOU WANT A BIG THREE CHILDREN FIGHT THEN VOTE! WHO WILL WIN?! WHO WILL BE THE ULTIMATE DEMIGOD?!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	10. My Dinner Goes Up In Smoke

**disclaimer: i dont own PJO**

**yes 10th chapter! check out my poll and review please thanks, 60th reviwere willget a chapter donated to them:) review!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

The next morning everyone gathered in the throne room, after a wonderful breakfast made by Hestia, to read the book.

"Who shall read?" Athena asked and Thalia raised her hand.

Athena passed the daughter of Zeus the book and she opened up to the chapter she was going to read.

**" My dinner Goes up in Smoke" **she read.

**Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet.**

Annabeth glared at a laughing Percy.

"Not funny Percy" she said.

"Admit it love, it is" Percy said and gave her a peck on the lips when she didn't soften her glare.

**She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords),**

"I love it in there" Bekendorf mused and Leo nodded his head.

**the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), **

"You called the Great God Pan a goat man?!" Grover said "you couldn't call him a satyr?"

"Sorry" Percy said.

**and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.**

"I love the wall" Annabeth said.

"Why?!" a few others said.

Annabeth shrugged "it's challenging."

"I don't like it" Percy said and the other demigods nodded their heads, except for Leo and Bekendorf.

"I made that wall!" Hephaestus said.

"Sorry Lord Hephaestus" Percy said.

**Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.**

**"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."**

**"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets."**

**"Whatever."**

**"It wasn't my fault."**

"Yes it was" Nico said.

**She looked at me skeptically, and I realized it was my fault. **

"No duh?" Thalia asked.

**I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.**

Everyone laughed.

**"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.**

**"Who?"**

**"Not who, what."**

"You are SO lucky that it's a different Oracle" Rachel told Annabeth

"I only talked about you like that when you were a threat to me" Annabeth said.

"Me? A threat? To you?" Rachel asked.

"Not in combat" Annabeth rolled her eyes "I didn't want you to steal Percy from me."

"Oh" Rachel said "He was cute."

"Was?!" Percy asked but shut up when Annabeth gave him...the look.

**I stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once.**

"With Annabeth?" Thalia asked "Not a chance."

**I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.**

"Well technically you are a long lost friend" Poseidon said.

**I didn't know what else to do. I waved back.**

**"Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts."**

"Looks like someones jealous." Travis joked.

"Shut up Travis. You too Connor" Annabeth said to a duo of snickering boys.

**"Naiads," I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now."**

"You faced a Fury, the Minotaur, and naiads are the reason you want to go home?" Bekendorf asked.

"I guess" Percy said and shrugged.

**Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Percy? You are home. **

"I find that ironic" Percy said.

"Why?" Annabeth asked.

"It IS like home to me" Percy said and the demigods, not Roman, nodded their heads in agreement.

**This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us."**

"Well..." Apollo said and got a glare from Zeus.

"No one says anything" Zeus grumbled and everyone, Godwise, nodded.

**"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?"**

"Hey!" The demigods yelled.

"Sorry!"

"Only Nico is the disturbed one!" Thalia joked and Nico pouted.

**"I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."**

**"Half-human and half-what?"**

**"I think you know."**

**I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid I did. I felt a tingling in my limbs, a sensation I sometimes felt when my mom talked about my dad.**

Poseidon and Sally smiled.

**"God," I said. "Half-god."**

"Finally!" a few people shouted.

Percy just pouted.

**Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians."**

"Correction: the BEST Olympian" Poseidon said.

"Correction: the Olympian who is about to get kicked out of Olympus while we read about your son's life if he doesn't shut up" Zeus said.

Poseidon shut up.

**"That's … crazy."**

**"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"**

**"But those are just-" I almost said myths again. Then I remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, I might be considered a myth. "But if all the kids here are half-gods-"**

"TThere are a lot of us" Travis said.

**"Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."**

**"Then who's your dad?"**

**Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling I'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject.**

"How sexist are you?!" Athena said.

"Uh in the myths it was only males you fell in love with humans. Hercules, Perseus, etc."

Athena, and a few other females, humphed.

**"My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history."**

**"He's human."**

**"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"**

"Happy Athena? Now you think like your daughter" Poseidon said.

**"Who's your mom, then?"**

**"Cabin six."**

"How was he supposed to know that?" Nico asked.

**"Meaning?"**

**Annabeth straightened.**

Annabeth straitened.

"A Proud child of Athena" she said and Athena smiled.

** "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."**

**Okay, I thought. Why not?**

Athena and Annabeth raised an eyebrow at Percy.

**"And my dad?"**

"How many times do you have to be told? Undetermined" Nico said.

**"Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you before. **

"Numerous times" Annabeth said.

**Nobody knows."**

**"Except my mother. She knew."**

"Yup" Sally said and Poseidon smiled at her and Paul narrowed his eyes but opened them to normal size quickly.

_"He's the father of her only son. Don't get to jealous"_ a female voice said in his mind and he saw Hera looking at him.

**"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities."**

**"My dad would have. He loved her."**

"Of course I did" Poseidon said and Sally blushed.

**Annabeth gave me a cautious look. She didn't want to burst my bubble.**"

**"Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens.**

"And sometimes it doesn't" a demigod said.

"Well now it's supposed to happen" Percy mumbled.

**"You mean sometimes it doesn't?"**

**Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always … Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us."**

"Is that really how you feel?" Athena asked.

The demigods nodded and the gods looked down full of guilt.

**I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I'd known kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better.**

"We should" and with that each God, except Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera and Artemis, snapped their fingers.

"Any children not claimed of mine are now being claimed" Demeter said.

"Wait till the other campers see the multiple claimings" Zeus chuckled.

**"So I'm stuck here," I said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?"**

**"It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force. **

"What's that supposed to mean?" Aphrodite asked in a dangerous voice.

"I meant their aura isn't as strong" Annaeth explained and the two goddesses softened their gaze.

**The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble-about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. **

"The president is my son" Hermes said proudly.

"5 of my children belong to the band One Direction" Apollo said.

**Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."**

"Luckies" a few demigods murmered.

**"So monsters can't get in here?"**

**Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."**

**"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"**

**"Practice fights. Practical jokes."**

**"Practical jokes?"**

The Stoll brothers smirked.

**"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."**

**"So … you're a year-rounder?"**

**Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.**

**"I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."**

**"Why did you come so young?"**

**She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business."**

"Now I know" Percy said.

**"Oh." I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So … I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?"**

**"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless …"**

**"Unless?"**

**"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time …"**

**Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well.**

"What happened?" Hermes asked.

Luke was looking away

**"Back in the sick room," I said, "when you were feeding me that stuff-"**

**"Ambrosia."**

"That tasted like popcorn" Nico noted.

**"Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice."**

**Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you do know something?"**

**"Well… no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"**

"She asked you" Thalia said "so of course she wouldn't know."

**She clenched her fists. "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal."**

**"You've been to Olympus?"**

"More times than I needed to" Annabeth said.

Percy looked confused, mind you, he always did;)

**"Some of us year-rounders-Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others-we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."**

**"But… how did you get there?"**

**"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at me like she was sure I must know this already. "You are a New Yorker, right?"**

"A lot of New Yorkers don't know that" Thalia said.

"And it should stay that way" Hera mumbled.

**"Oh, sure." As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building, but I decided not to point that out.**

**"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping … I mean- Athena can get along with just about anybody, **

"Except Ares and Poseidon" Athena noted.

"I don't know why you don't get along with me" Ares said.

"You know why" Athena snapped.

"Stupis Athenians" Poseidon mumbled to low for anyone else to hear **(A/N: I only heard it beacause as a reporter i hear it all;) )**

**except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something."**

"Turns out you're trying to convince a son of Poseidon, your mother's rival." Thalia said.

"She's also dating him" Nico pointed out "I think it's ironic how a son of Poseidon and a daughter of Athena are dating. The children of 2 rivals are dating...yup ironic".

"What about a son of Hephaestus and a daughter of Aphrodite" Thalia noted.

"There's that too" Nico said and Aphrodite wondered which one of her daughters would date a child of her husband's then she looked at Silena and saw her staring at that Bekendorf guy, a son of Hephaestus.

_"She likes him!"_ she thought and smiled.

**I shook my head. I wished I could help her, but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.**

**"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to herself. "I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the problem …"**

**I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard my stomach growl. She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan.**

"Not exactly a battle plan" Annabeth murmered.

"What was it?" Thalia asked.

"othing" Annabeth said blushing.

**Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. Thankfully, nobody paid much attention to me as I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down with my minotaur horn.**

**The counselor, Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact.**

Hermes understood.

_"That's what went wrong on the last quest!"_ he thought _"My poor Luke."_

**"Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."**

**I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part.**

"Probably not" Luke said.

**I said, "Thanks."**

**"No prob." Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"**

**"I don't belong here," I said. "I don't even believe in gods."**

**"Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."**

Some people laughed.

**The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything.**

**"So your dad is Hermes?" I asked.**

**He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me, but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."**

**"The wing-footed messenger guy."**

"EVeryone describes me as that!" Hermes cried.

"Sorry" Percy said.

**"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."**

**I figured Luke didn't mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind.**

"I always do" Luke mumbled.

**"You ever meet your dad?" I asked.**

**"Once."**

**I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story had anything to do with how he got his scar.**

Hermes, Luke, Thalia and Annabeth winced.

"Not quite" Luke murmered to low for anyone to hear except me. **(A/N: when i say me it means me "me" logan, the author")**

**Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."**

"Right" all the demigods said.

The gods smiled as their children promised to stand up and help each other.

_"When needed, we know these demigods will be able to unite and help not only us but each other" _Hera thought_ "Family"_ she smiled.

**He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like him-even if he was a counselor-should've steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed me into the cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries, which was the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day.**

"Thanks" Percy said.

**I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth … twice, she said I might be 'the one.' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"**

**Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies."**

**"What do you mean?"**

**His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until… somebody special came to the camp."**

**"Somebody special?"**

"What ever do you mean our dear Annabeth?" Connor asked and Annabeth shot him a look that clearly said _"shut up or i'll gut you with my knife"_ which shut him up.

**Don't worry about it, kid," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinnertime."**

Annabeth blushed a little.

**The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell, even though I'd never heard one before.**

"Ocean?" some one asked and Percy nodded.

**Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"**

**The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.**

"Mine" Artmeis and Bianca said and smiled at each other.

**We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods- and when I say out of the woods, I mean straight out of the woods. I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.**

"A dryad" Apollo said.

**In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.**

"There were way more than 100 campers when we were there" Piper said and no one replied.

**At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off.**

**I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys ****who looked just like Mr. D. **

"Castor and Pollux" Dionysus said and smiled.

**Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.**

**Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey-blond hair.**

Athena smiled at the mention of her kids.

"He noticed where you were sitting Anna" Thalia joked.

"Shut up and don't call me Anna" Annabeth said.

**Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.**

**Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"**

**Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"**

**Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want-nonalcoholic, of course."**

"No fun in that" Travis said and surprisingly Dionysus nodded his head in agreement.

**I said, "Cherry Coke."**

"Thats my favorite soda." Sally said.

"It's his usual" Annabeth said.

**The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid.**

**Then I had an idea. "Blue Cherry Coke."**

Sally smiled an hugged her son.

**The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.**

**I took a cautious sip. Perfect.**

**I drank a toast to my mother.**

**She's not gone, I told myself. Not permanently, anyway. She's in the Underworld. And if that's a real place, then someday…**

"You shouldn't think that way Percy" Sally said.

**"Here you go, Percy," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.**

**I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion. I wondered if they were going for dessert or something.**

"Seaweed Brain" Annabeth murmered.

**"Come on," Luke told me.**

**As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.**

**Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."**

**"You're kidding."**

**His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food.**

**Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."**

**I was next.**

**I wished I knew what god's name to say.**

**Finally, I made a silent plea. Whoever you are, tell me. Please.**

**I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.**

**When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag.**

**It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke.**

"We don't, we live off of Hestia and Hera's cooking" Apollo said.

**When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.**

**Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."**

**A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.**

Ares and Clarrisse cheered to.

**"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson."**

"Thus the beginning of him not remembering my name" Percy said and Dionysus smirked.

"I purposely forget every campers, except my children, names Prissy" Dionysus said.

**Chiron murmured something.**

**"Er, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."**

**Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing w****as, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.**

The Camp Half-Blood demigods smiled, they know the feeling.

**Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag.**

**My fingers curled around the Minotaur's horn. I thought about my mom, but I had good thoughts: her smile, the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she would tell me not to let the bedbugs bite.**

Sally smiled and hugged her son again.

**When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.**

**That was my first day at Camp Half-Blood.**

**I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.**

"I love it there" demigods said.

"Who wants to read?" Thalia asked and Grover raised his hand and began to read...

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**hey everyone! chapter 10 yes! uh check out my poll and yeah...review**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	11. We Capture a Flag

**i have always loved this chapter in the book! ejoys! i wrote 2 chpaters today because i eeded to catch up! check out my poll and review**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

**" We chapter a Flag," **Grover read.

"Yes! Some action! Finally!" Ares said.

PErcy smirked knowingly at Clarisse and she glared at him.

**The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.**

**Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth,**

"Study buddies!" Connor said and Percy and Annabeth blushed furiously.

**and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird. I discovered Annabeth was right about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.**

The demigods nodded their heads in agreement, they all knew the feeling.

**The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery, but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow. He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.**

"I usually get hit or almost get hit with an arrow whenever a new camper tries archery" Chiron says

**Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods. But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.**

Annabeth laughed.

**And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me.**

**"There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear.**

Clarisse glared at him.

**The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.**

"Yeah...I was wondering what demigod beats the Minotaur and excells at canoeing?" Connor said.

**I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids**

"Defiately not" Ares said.

**, or as good at archery as the Apollo kids. **

"Never will be" Apollo said "No one is as good at archery then my kids".

"I dont know brother" Artemis said "My Hunters could beat your children."

"No they couldn't" Apollo said and Grover started reading agin before the twins' argument could get any worse.

**I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork or-gods forbid- Dionysus's way with vine plants.**

"The feelings mutual." Dionysus said.

**Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either.**

**Despite all that, I liked camp. **

"Correction: I love camp" Percy said.

"Wonder why?" Travis said and Annabeth and Percy blushed.

"Uh...it's not that its" Annabeth gave him the look and he quickly backtracked "She's a big part of why I love camp but it's also where I feel most at ease and happy."

**I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real dad. Nothing came. Just that warm feeling I'd always had, like the memory of his smile. I tried not to think too much about my mom, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back….**

"You shouldn't think like that" Hades said.

**I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes. So okay, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something? Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear?**

"Sadly your Uncle won't allow that" Poseidon said glaring at his youngest brother, Lord of the skies.

**Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.**

**We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good.**

"And there's the beginning of Percy being the best sword fighter ever" Annabeth said.

**The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long. Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me.**

"Only sword that does is Riptide" Percy said.

**We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time.**

**"Good luck," one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."**

"Me" Travis admitted.

**"Maybe he'll go easy on me," I said.**

**The camper snorted.**

**Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Percy," he'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!" Whap! "Lunge!" Whap! "Now, back!" Whap!**

"So I taught you?" Luke asked.

"A little bit" Percy said.

**By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same.**

"In our fight I would have won a lot sooner had I done that" Percy said.

**Instantly, I felt better. Strength surgerd into my arms. The sword felt more balanced in my hands.**

"Water gives me strength" Percy sexplained to the few who looked confused.

**"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."**

**Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded.**

**The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag. He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.**

"I learned it in 2 weeks" Luke said.

"1 week" Clarisse said and Luke scowled.

"It took me 5 days to learn it" Thalia said and smiled triumphetely as Clarisse glared at her.

**"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."**

**He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.**

**"Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"**

**I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.**

Poseidon smiled.

**The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured, What the heck?**

**I tried the disarming maneuver.**

**My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.**

**Clang.**

**Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.**

"Sorry to burst all your guys bubbles but...I learned it on my first try" Percy said.

Jason was looking at Percy with newfound interest.

**The other campers were silent.**

**I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry."**

**For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.**

**"Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!"**

**I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted.**

**This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.**

**After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"**

"Nope" Poseidon said and smiled even bigger.

**Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword… ."**

"So much damage" a future demigod from Camp Half-Blood said.

**Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall. Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms.**

**We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.**

**His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.**

**"Fine," he said. "Just great."**

**"So your career's still on track?"**

**He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"**

**"Well… no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask. "He just said you had big plans, you know … and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"**

"I should have waited for you at the bus" Percy said.

"It's okay Perce" Grover said.

**Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."**

"Consider?" Zeus asked.

**My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"**

**"Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest… and even if you did, why would you want me along?"**

**"Of course I'd want you along!"**

Thanks" Grover said to Percy

"No problem" Percy smiled.

**Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving … Must be nice to have a useful skill."**

"What's useful about that?" someone asked and evryone laughed.

**I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins.**

**"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad."**

"Yes...my Hunters need a place to stay when they visit Camp" Artemis said.

**"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"**

**Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals. **

"Damn right" Hera said.

**That's her husband's job. **

Hera grumbled and Zeus shrunk down in his seat.

**When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."**

**"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."**

**"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."**

**"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."**

**"Uh-huh."**

**"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here."**

"Cause my children aren't accpeted" Hades grumbled.

**"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here …" Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."**

"HEY!" Hades and Nico yelled.

"Sorry!"

**"But Zeus and Poseidon-they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"**

**Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."**

"Tell me how well that worked out?!" Annabeth said and the Big Three took a sudden interest in the floor.

**Thunder boomed.**

**I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make."**

**Grover nodded.**

**"And the brothers kept their word-no kids?"**

**Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo-he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia .. . well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."**

Thalia flinched.

**"But that isn't fair.' It wasn't the little girl's fault."**

**Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."**

Luke and Annabeth looked down and Thalia had tears in her eyes.

**He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."**

Annabeth gave a Thalia a hug as a tear escaped and ran down her cheek.

**I stared at the pine in the distance.**

**The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much. I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother?**

**"Grover," I said, "have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"**

**"Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini."**

**"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"**

**"No. Never. Orpheus came close… . Percy, you're not seriously thinking-"**

"Not a good way to think" Athena said.

**"No," I lied. "I was just wondering. So … a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"**

**Grover studied me warily. I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems."**

**"And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special."**

"Conceited?" Travis asked and Percy told him to shut up.

**Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't… Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you were-you know-you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"**

"Nice way to make him feel better" Nico joked.

**I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.**

**That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.**

**At last, it was time for capture the flag.**

**When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.**

**Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. **

Annabeth smiled.

**From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.**

**I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"**

"No" Travis said "They're tablecloths."

**"Yeah."**

**"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"**

**"Not always," he said. "But often."**

"No always" Annabeth said.

**"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do- repaint the flag?"**

"Honest question!" Percy said.

**He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."**

**"Whose side are we on?"**

**He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight.**

Anabeth shivered and Thalia looked down.

**"We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help."**

"We always ally with Athena" Luke said.

Jason was listening intently on how their 'War Games' went.

**The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded-shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities-in order to win support.**

"Strength in numbers" Athena said.

"And 2 BRILLIANT sword fighters" Hermes said.

**Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. Fro****m what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. **

"You can't be agressive with plants" Demeter said.

**Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped.**

"Yeah, we do" Silena said.

**Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem. That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.**

Everyones, except Ares, Clarisse and Chris, laughed.

**Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.**

**"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"**

"He shouldn't have to say no maiming an dkilling" Athena said.

"Well you never know with Clarisse" Percy said and people chuckled.

**He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spe****ars, oxhide shields coated in metal.**

**"Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?"**

"No Percy, they're just there for decorations" Thalia said.

**Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here-Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."**

"Perfect place for him" Annabeth said "next to the creek."

**My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.**

**Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"**

**We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.**

**I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey."**

**She kept marching.**

**"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"**

"Like I would" Annabeth said.

**Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.**

**"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"**

**"Border patrol, whatever that means."**

**"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."**

"I didn't like that oplan by the way" Percy said an dAnnabeth kissed him.

**She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.**

**"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team."**

"Why you gotta hurt the boy's feelings?" Travis said.

**It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.**

**Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot. **

"Welll..." Thalia and ico began.

"You really wanna finish that?" PEecy asked and the duo shut up.

**The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.**

**There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?**

"Since when?" Ares asked.

**Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, **

"My animal, not Apollo's" Artemis mumbled.

**leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.**

**Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.**

"Right" Annaeth said "you got all the fun."

**Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.**

Poseidon paled.

**I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me.**

**Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.**

**On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.**

**"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed.**

"You're screwed" Chris said but Percy just smirked.

**Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords-not that that made me feel any better.**

**They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.**

**I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid the Minotaur. **

"Really?" Thalia asked.

**They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.**

**Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. I fell back.**

Annabeth narrowed her eyes at Clarisse.

**Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt.**

**They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.**

**"Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his hair."**

Annaeth glared at Clarisse who was fidgeting.

**I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.**

"Loser" Clarisse mumbled and was doused with water.

**"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."**

"Should be" Percy said.

**"The flag is that way," I told her. I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way.**

"It didn't" Clarisse said "you sounded like a scared little puppy."

**"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid."**

"You guys do that on your own" Nico said.

**"You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.**

"No duh Kelp-for-Brain" Thalia said and Percy pouted.

**Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, ****tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-ke-babbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.**

**Seeing my own blood made me dizzy-warm and cold at the same time.**

"Wimp" Ares said and Poseidon glared at him.

**"No maiming," I managed to say.**

**"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege.**

"Wippdee doo" Thalia said.

**He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash.**

Poseidon smiled and Ares didn't look happy.

** They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans.**

**Clarisse and her cabinmates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.**

A few people cheered!

**Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.**

"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOO!" the demigods all from Camp Half-Blood cheered and Clarisse glared at them.

**"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"**

"That's Nico" Thalia teased.

"Shut up"

**She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.**

**Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.**

**"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."**

"No it was you being stupid" Thalia said and avoided Clarisse's punch.

**They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.**

**The game was over. We'd won.**

**I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."**

**I looked, but she wasn't there.**

People smiled.

**"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.**

Athena smiled.

"You find that cap useful?" she asked.

Annabeth nodded and smiled at her.

**I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."**

**Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."**

"I'm sorry" Annabeth said.

"S' ok" Percy said.

**"A plan to get me pulverized."**

**"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but …" She shrugged. "You didn't need help."**

**Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"**

**"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"**

"No need to be snippy" Nico said.

**"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it."**

**The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I** **watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.**

"Cool an duseful" Jason said and Percy nodded.

**"I-I don't get it," I said.**

**Annabeth was thinking hard. I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."**

**"What-"**

**"Just do it."**

**I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.**

"Side effects, hate 'em" PErcy said.

**"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want … I assumed it would be Zeus… ."**

Zeus glared at Annabeth.

**Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.**

**The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"**

**Annabeth drew her sword.**

Annabeth wrinkled her nose. She hated fighting with a sword.

**There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.**

**It was looking straight at me.**

Poseidon and Sally paled.

**Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"**

**She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her-an enormous shadow with teeth-and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.**

"Everyone let out a breath they were holding.

**By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.**

**Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.**

**"Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't … they're not supposed to …"**

**"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."**

**Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.**

**Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"**

"Really Clarisse?" Annabeth asked.

"I was mad" Clarisse said.

**"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.**

**We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.**

**"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."**

**"I'm okay."**

**"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."**

**I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me.**

**Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.**

**"Look, I-I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry…."**

"Oh quit apologizig!" Annabeth said.

**But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.**

"He's being claimed. "Athena said and Poseidon smiled.

**"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um …"**

**By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.**

Poseidon's smile was so big that it could have resembled the sea.

**"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."**

**"It is determined," Chiron announced.**

**All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.**

**"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.**

**"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."**

"Done" Grover said and held up the book.

"! wanna read!" Hestia said and took the book from Grover and began to read.

* * *

**i did 2 chapters today because i haven't updated in like 3 days. review ad check out my new poll! another battle!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	12. I Am Offered A Quest

**this chapter is dedicated to BrookieHyuga, the 60th reviewer! congratulatios!:D you guys have bee so cool to stick with this story! i love you guys! lets go for 75 now!**

**~PricessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

**"I'm offered a Quest," **Hestia read.

Poseidon groaned.

**The next morning, Chiron moved me to cabin three.**

**I didn't have to share with anybody. I had plenty of room for all my stuff: the Minotaur's horn, one set of spare clothes, and a toiletry bag. I got to sit at my own dinner table, pick all my own activities, call "lights out" whenever I felt like it, and not listen to anybody else.**

"I would like that" the Stoll brothers said.

"It sucks" Thalia said. Percy and Nico nodded their heads in agreement.

"So lonely" Percy said.

**And I was absolutely miserable.**

**Just when I'd started to feel accepted, to feel I had a home in cabin eleven and I might be a normal kid-or as normal as you can be when you're a half-blood-I'd been separated out as if I had some rare disease.**

**Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but I got the feeling they were all talking about it behind my back. The attack had scared everybody. It sent two messages: one, that I was the son of the Sea God; and two, monsters would stop at nothing to kill me. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe.**

"It's the safest place" Ares said.

**The other campers steered clear of me as much as possible. Cabin eleven was too nervous to have sword class with me after what I'd done to the Ares folks in the woods, so my lessons with Luke became one-on-one. He pushed me harder than ever, and wasn't afraid to bruise me up in the process.**

"You do know you could have told me that we all ready dueled and you won to save me from being humiliated in front of my dad" Luke said jokingly and Hermes smiled..

**"You're going to need all the training you can get," he promised, as we were working with swords and flaming torches. "Now let's try that viper-beheading strike again. Fifty more repetitions."**

"But it just makes me better by saying I beat my teacher" Percy said.

**Annabeth still taught me Greek in the mornings, but she seemed distracted. Every time I said something, she scowled at me, as if I'd just poked her between the eyes.**

"Sorry" Annabeth said.

"It okay" Percy said and kissed her on the lips.

**After lessons, she would walk away muttering to herself: "Quest … Poseidon? … Dirty rotten … **

"Yup" Athea said "sea spawn, dirt rotten, good for nothing..."

**Got to make a plan …"**

**Even Clarisse kept her distance, though her venomous looks made it clear she wanted to kill me for breaking her magic spear. **

"I did" Clarisse promised "I still do."

**I wished she would just yell or punch me or something. I'd rather get into fights every day than be ignored.**

"I can arage that" Ares said with a wicked smile.

**I knew somebody at camp resented me, because one night I came into my cabin and found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the New York Daily News, opened to the Metro page. The article took me almost an hour to read, because the angrier I got, the more the words floated around on the page.**

The demigods nodded. They knew how that felt.

**BOY AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER**

**FREAK CAR ACCIDENT**

**BY EILEEN SMYTHE**

**Sally Jackson and son Percy are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding.**

**Mother and son had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident.**

**Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past.**

"I really hate him" someone said.

"I wonder what puishment he'll get in the Underworld" Nico mused and smiled mysteriously at his father who made a mental note to give that guy the worst punishment possible.

Poseidon had his hads balled into fists.

**Police would not say whether son Percy is a suspect in his mother's disappearance, **

"Riiiiiiiiight... PErcy, the boy who loves his mom more than anything is responsible for his mother's disappearence" Thalia said sarcastically.

**but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson and Percy. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline.**

**The phone number was circled in black marker.**

"I actually think I was the one who put the newspaper in his cabin" Connor said.

**I wadded up the paper and threw it away, then flopped down in my bunk bed in the middle of my empty cabin.**

**"Lights out," I told myself miserably.**

**That night, I had my worst dream yet.**

"I hate his dreams" Annabeth said and Percy took her had.

**I was running along the beach in a storm. This time, there was a city behind me. Not New York. The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance.**

**About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair. Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, **

"Me" Zeus said.

**the other in green. **

"Me" Poseidon said.

**They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.**

**I had to stop them. I didn't know why. But the harder I ran, the more the wind blew me back, until I was running in place, my heels digging uselessly in the sand.**

**Over the roar of the storm, I could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, Give it back! Give it back! Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.**

**The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying me with salt.**

**I yelled, Stop it! Stop fighting!**

"It takes a lot to get these two to stop fighting" Hera said pointing at 2 out of 3 of the Big Three...bet you can guess which two;)

**The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil it turned my blood to ice.**

The future demigods looked at each other.

**Come down, little hero, the voice crooned. Come down!**

**The sand split beneath me, opening up a crevice straight down to the center of the earth. My feet slipped, and darkness swallowed me.**

**I woke up, sure I was falling.**

Bekendorf, Leo ad Hephaestus cringed at the mention of falling.

**I was still in bed in cabin three. My body told me it was morning, but it was dark outside, and thunder rolled across the hills. A storm was brewing. I hadn't dreamed that.**

**I heard a clopping sound at the door, a hoof knocking on the threshold.**

**"Come in?"**

**Grover trotted inside, looking worried. "Mr. D wants to see you."**

**"Why?"**

**"He wants to kill… I mean, I'd better let him tell you."**

"Smooth" Nico joked.

"You touch my son I'll kill you Dionysus" Poseido said and Dionysus gulped.

**Nervously, I got dressed and followed, sure that I was in huge trouble.**

**For days, I'd been half expecting a summons to the Big House. Now that I was declared a son of Poseidon, one of the Big Three gods who weren't supposed to have kids, I figured it was a crime for me just to be alive. The other gods had probably been debating the best way to punish me for existing, and now Mr. D was ready to deliver their verdict.**

"Optimistic aren't cha?" Thalia asked sarcastically.

**Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in our direction. I asked Grover if we needed an umbrella.**

**"No," he said. "It never rains here unless we want it to."**

**I pointed at the storm. "What the heck is that, then?"**

**He glanced uneasily at the sky. "It'll pass around us. Bad weather always does."**

**I realized he was right. In the week I'd been here, it had never even been overcast. The few rain clouds I'd seen had skirted right around the edges of the valley.**

"Cool" Jason said.

**But this storm … this one was huge.**

**At the volleyball pit, the kids from Apollo's cabin were playing a morning game against the satyrs.**

"Who won?" Apollo asked.

"Your kids" Grover said and Apollo pumped his fist in the air.

**Dionysus's twins were walking around in the strawberry fields, making the plants grow. **

Dionysus smiled at the mention of his kids.

**Everybody was going about their normal business, but they looked tense. They kept their eyes on the storm.**

**Grover and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke, just as he had on my first day. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheelchair. They were playing against invisible opponents–two sets of cards hovering in the air.**

**"Well, well," Mr. D said without looking up. "Our little celebrity."**

**I waited.**

"Good choice" Annabeth said.

**"Come closer," **

"DON'T!" the Stoll brothers yelled "IT'S A TRAP!"

"Shut up" Dionysus said.

**Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to kowtow to you, mortal, just because old Barnacle-Beard is your father."**

"Barnacle-Beard?" Poseidon asked his nephew.

Dionysus shrugged.

"I got it from Athena" he said while Athena smirked at said 'Barnacle-Beard' and held up 3 fingers.

Poseidon glared at her.

**A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house.**

**"Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said.**

Zeus glared at the wine god as he sloutched further down into his seat.

**Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth.**

**"If I had my way," Dionysus said, "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm."**

**"Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron put in.**

"True" Hades said.

**"Nonsense," Dionysus said. "Boy wouldn't feel a thing. Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself I'm thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead, sending you back to your father."**

"I don't think I would like him very much as a dolphin" Annabeth said.

"I'd be pretty useless" Percy said.

"Nonsense! We could use you to ride into battle if there is one in the sea" Poseidon said.

"Tempting" Percy said "I'd rather stay human though. For my girlfriend."

Annabeth kissed him.

**Mr. D-" Chiron warned.**

**"Oh, all right," Dionysus relented. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." Dionysus rose, and the invisible players' cards dropped to the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the boy is still here when I get back, I'll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Perseus Jackson, **

"The first out of two times he'll get my name right" Percy said.

**if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do."**

**Dionysus picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. A credit card? No. A security pass.**

"Percy was probably wondering why a security pass" Nico said and Thalia snorted trying to hide a laugh.

**He snapped his fingers.**

**The air seemed to fold and bend around him. He became a hologram, then a wind, then he was gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind.**

**Chiron smiled at me, but he looked tired and strained. "Sit, Percy, please. And Grover."**

**We did.**

**Chiron laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.**

"Quit beating me!" Dionysus whined and Chiron chuckled.

**"Tell me, Percy," he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?"**

**Just hearing the name made me shudder.**

**Chiron probably wanted me to say, Heck, it was nothing. I eat hellhounds for breakfast. But I didn't feel like lying.**

"I did not want you to lie" Chiron said.

**"It scared me," I said. "If you hadn't shot it, I'd be dead."**

**"You'll meet worse, Percy. Far worse, before you're done."**

**"Done … with what?"**

**"Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?"**

**I glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers.**

"Why were you crossing your fingers?" Jason asked.

"I needed to accompany Percy on a quest to get my keeper's liscense" Grover said.

**"Um, sir," I said, "you haven't told me what it is yet."**

**Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details."**

**Thunder rumbled across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as I could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.**

"Then when all three of the Big Three fight the sea and sky boil together and people start dying for no apparent reason" Athena said.

**"Poseidon and Zeus," I said. "They're fighting over something valuable … something that was stolen, aren't they?"**

"Yeah my bolt" Zeus grumbled glaring at Poseidon and Hades.

**Chiron and Grover exchanged looks.**

**Chiron sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?"**

**My face felt hot. I wished I hadn't opened my big mouth. "The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft. And … I've also been having these dreams."**

**"I knew it," Grover said.**

**"Hush, satyr," Chiron ordered.**

"Hush" Connor and Travis said and put their index fingers up to their lips.

**"But it is his quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It must be!"**

"Sadly" Poseidon said.

**"Only the Oracle can determine." Chiron stroked his bristly beard. "Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: ****a lightning bolt."**

Zeus held his bolt closer to him and for some reason Poseidon clutched his Trident closer and Hades tucked the Helm of Darkness between his leg and throne side.

**I laughed nervously. "A what?"**

**"Do not take this lightly," Chiron warned. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives."**

**"Oh."**

"All he says is oh" Nico said shaking his head.

**"Zeus's master bolt," Chiron said, getting worked up now. "The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."**

"You talk very highly of my bolt, brother" Zeus told Chiron and confusion swept across a few faces before they remember that Chiron was also a child of Kronos.

**"And it's missing?"**

**"Stolen," Chiron said.**

**"By who?"**

**"By whom," Chiron corrected. Once a teacher, always a teacher. **

Everyone laughed.

**"By you." ****My mouth fell open.**

**"Typical** Percy response" Thalia joked.

Everyone laughed at the image of Percy as said demigod pouted.

**"At least"-Chiron held up a hand-"that's what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best,'**

"We all know Mother liked Zeus best so can't you two just drop it?!" Demeter asked.

**Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' ****et cetera. Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly-that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it."**

**"But I didn't-"**

**"Patience and listen, child," **

"Patience Percy" Connor said.

"He has problems with that" Annabeth said and looked up to kiss a pouting Percy.

**Chiron said. "Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne. **

"Like I would do that" Poseidon said.

**The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his son. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief."**

**"But I've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!"**

"Seriously how are you alive?!" Athena asked Percy again.

Zeus was glaring at Percy.

**Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. The clouds didn't seem to be parting around us, as Grover had promised. They were rolling straight over our valley, sealing us in like a coffin lid.**

"Talk about depressing" Nico said.

**"Er, Percy …?" Grover said. "We don't use the c-word to describe the Lord of the Sky."**

**"Perhaps paranoid,"**

"Better" Zeus said "I am not crazy."

**Chiron suggested. "Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam…**

"You actually expected him to remember question 38?" Hermes asked.

**"He looked at me as if he actually expected me to remember question thirty-eight.**

**How could anyone accuse me of stealing a god's weapon? I couldn't even steal a slice of pizza from Gabe's poker party without getting busted. **

"Talk about sad" Katie said.

"Can I teach you how to steal?" Travis asked.

"Sure" Percy said and shrugged.

Sally didn't like the fact that a son of the god of theives was going to teach her son something.

**Chiron was waiting for an answer.**

**"Something about a golden net?" I guessed. "Poseidon and Hera and a few other gods … they, like, trapped Zeus and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler, right?"**

"You actually remembered?" Annabeth asked.

"I have my days" Percy said.

"Not to often" Annabeth replied and Percy pouted.

Annabeth kissed him and he put his arms around her as she leaned back against him and put her head on his chest.

Aphrodite was smiling and squirming.

Thalia gagged a little.

_"I still think she should become a hunter_" she thought.

**"Correct," Chiron said. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you've come along-the proverbial last straw."**

**"But I'm just a kid!"**

**"Percy," Grover cut in, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he's fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you…. Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?"**

"Who wears togas anymore?" Travis asked and all the Gods and Goddesses, smirking evily, snapped their fingers.

Suddenly everyone was wearing a toga.

"You guys seem to like wearing them to" Hermes joked.

Annabeth had her nose wrinkled. She hated dresses of any kind.

**"But I didn't do anything. Poseidon-my dad-he didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?"**

"No" Poseidon said.

**Chiron sighed. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style.**

"Thank you!" Poseidon said.

**But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?"**

**"Bad?" I guessed.**

"Really?" Nico asked and Percy shrugged.

**"Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight."**

**"Bad," I repeated.**

Everyone laughed.

**"And you, Percy Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath."**

Poseidon was glaring at Zeus and Percy gulped as Zeus glared at him.

**It started to rain. Volleyball players stopped their game and stared in stunned silence at the sky.**

"I was a litle freaked by that" Travis said.

**I had brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of me. I was furious.**

**"So I have to find the stupid bolt," I said. "And return it to Zeus."**

**"What better peace offering," Chiron said, "than to have the son of Poseidon return Zeus's property?"**

"It would be a good peace offering" Athena said.

**"If Poseidon doesn't have it, where is the thing?"**

"It is not a thing! It is my Master Bolt!" Zeuss aid and the gods all rolled their eyes.

**"I believe I know." Chiron's expression was grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago**

"The Great Prophecy applies to my son?" Poseidon squeked.

Chiron nodded glumly.

What prophecy?" Leo asked.

"A Great Prophecy that was made a while ago" Zeus said.

"What did it say?" Piper asked.

"May I say it Father?" Apollo asked.

"Sure" Zeus said.

Apollo cleared his throat.

"A half-blood of the eldest Gods,  
Shall reach sixteen against all odds.  
And see the world in endless sleep,  
The Hero's sould cursed blade shall reap.  
A single choice shall end his days,  
Olympus to preserve or raze."

"That sounds bad" Leo said.

"It is" Zeus said.

"It's fufilled in the future" Percy said and glanced at Luke, Hermes noticed this and narrowed his eyes.

"Why my son? Why?" Poseidon said and put his head in his hands.

**… well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle."**

**"Why can't you tell me where the bolt is beforehand?"**

**"Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge."**

**I swallowed. "Good reason."**

**"You agree then?"**

**I looked at Grover, who nodded encouragingly.**

**Easy for him. I was the one Zeus wanted to kill.**

**"All right," I said. "It's better than being turned into a dolphin."**

"Always looks on the bright side of things. That why we love Percy" Thalia said.

**"Then it's time you consulted the Oracle," Chiron said. "Go upstairs, Percy Jackson, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more."**

"Doesn't sound reassuring" Leo commented.

**Four flights up, the stairs ended under a green trapdoor.**

**I pulled the cord. The door swung down, and a wooden ladder clattered into place.**

**The warm air from above smelled like mildew and rotten wood and something else … a smell I remembered from biology class. Reptiles. The smell of snakes.**

The demigods who knew the old Oracle shuddered.

**I held my breath and climbed.**

**The attic was filled with Greek hero junk: armor stands covered in cobwebs; once-bright shields pitted with rust; old leather steamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS. One long table was stacked with glass jars filled with pickled things-severed hairy claws, huge yellow eyes, various other parts of monsters. A dusty mounted trophy on the wall looked like a giant snake's head, but with horns and a full set of shark's teeth. The plaque read, HYDRA HEAD #1, WOODSTOCK, N.Y., 1969.**

**By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the most gruesome memento of all: a mummy. Not the wrapped-in-cloth kind, but a human female body shriveled to a husk. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were glassy white slits, as if the real eyes had been replaced by marbles; she'd been dead a long, long time.**

Piper shivered.

"I like Rachel better" she said and the Greek demigods nodded in agreement.

**Looking at her sent chills up my back. And that was before she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth. A green mist poured from the mummy's mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty thousand snakes. I stumbled over myself trying to get to the trapdoor, but it slammed shut. Inside my head, I heard a voice, slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain: I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, **

Apollo smiled.

**slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask.**

**I wanted to say, No thanks, wrong door, just looking for the bathroom. But I forced myself to take a deep breath.**

A weak chuckle was heard around the room.

**The mummy wasn't alive. She was some kind of gruesome receptacle for something else, the power that was now swirling around me in the green mist. But its presence didn't feel evil, like my demonic math teacher Mrs. Dodds or the Minotaur. It felt more like the Three Fates I'd seen knitting the yarn outside the highway fruit stand: **

"You just had to bring them up?" Poseidon said.

**ancient, powerful, and definitely not human. But not particularly interested in killing me, either.**

**I got up the courage to ask, "What is my destiny?"**

**The mist swirled more thickly, collecting right in front of me and around the table with the pickled monster-part jars. Suddenly there were four men sitting around the table, playing cards. Their faces became clearer. It was Smelly Gabe and his buddies.**

People wrinkled their noses.

**My fists clenched, though I knew this poker party couldn't be real. It was an illusion, made out of mist.**

**Gabe turned toward me and spoke in the rasping voice of the Oracle: You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.**

Zeus was now glaring at Hades.

**His buddy on the right looked up and said in the same voice: You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.**

Zeus let out a small sigh of relief. He was going to get his bolt back.

**The guy on the left threw in two poker chips, then said: You shall he betrayed by one who calls you a friend.**

People narrowed their eyes and some glanced at Luke briefly.

**Finally, Eddie, our building super, delivered the worst line of all: And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.**

"Your mother?" Nico asked and Percy nodded.

**The figures began to dissolve. At first I was too stunned to say anything, but as the mist retreated, coiling into a huge green serpent and slithering back into the mouth of the mummy, I cried, "Wait! What do you mean? What friend? What will I fail to save?"**

**The tail of the mist snake disappeared into the mummy's mouth. She reclined back against the wall. Her mouth closed tight, as if it hadn't been open in a hundred years. The attic was silent again, abandoned, nothing but a room full of mementos.**

**I got the feeling that I could stand here until I had cobwebs, too, and I wouldn't learn anything else.**

**My audience with the Oracle was over.**

"Yup" Apollo said.

**Well?" Chiron asked me.**

**I slumped into a chair at the pinochle table. "She said I would retrieve what was stolen."**

**Grover sat forward, chewing excitedly on the remains of a Diet Coke can. "That's great!"**

People rolled their eyes.

"Wait till you see his excitement level change" Percy said.

**"What did the Oracle say exactly?" Chiron pressed. "This is important."**

**My ears were still tingling from the reptilian voice. "She . .. she said I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned."**

**"I knew it," Grover said.**

**Chiron didn't look satisfied. "Anything else?"**

**I didn't want to tell him.**

**What friend would betray me? I didn't have that many.**

**And the last line-I would fail to save what mattered most. What kind of Oracle would send me on a quest and tell me, Oh, by the way, you'll fail**

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you" Percy said.

"It is ok" Chiron said.

**How could I confess that?**

**"No," I said. "That's about it."**

**He studied my face. "Very well, Percy. But know this: the Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass."**

**I got the feeling he knew I was holding back something bad, and he was trying to make me feel better.**

"I did" Chiron nodded.

**"Okay," I said, anxious to change topics. "So where do I go? Who's this god in the west?"**

**"Ah, think, Percy," Chiron said. "If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"**

**"Somebody else who wants to take over?" I guessed.**

**"Yes, quite. Someone who harbors a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."**

**I thought about my dreams, the evil voice that had spoken from under the ground. "Hades."**

"You had to think?" Thalia said.

"It's not my dad" Nico said "We have enough trafic in the Underworld as it is."

Hades nodded and was filled with pride as his son said 'we'.

**Chiron nodded. "The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility."**

"No" Percy said to low for anyone, but me, to hear.

**A scrap of aluminum dribbled out of Grover's mouth. "Whoa, wait. Wh-what?"**

"I see what you mean when you said watch his excitement level change" Thalia said and Grover blushed as everyone laughed.

**"A Fury came after Percy," Chiron reminded him. "She watched the young man until she was sure of his identity, then tried to kill him. Furies obey only one lord: Hades."**

"Gotta point there" Hades said.

**"Yes, but-but Hades hates all heroes," Grover protested. "Especially if he has found out Percy is a son of Poseidon… ."**

**"A hellhound got into the forest," Chiron continued. "Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp. Hades must have a spy here. He must suspect Poseidon will try to use Percy to clear his name. Hades would very much like to kill this young half-blood before he can take on the quest."**

**"Great," I muttered. "That's two major gods who want to kill me."**

Poseidon paled.

"You touch my son...either of you...you will feel MY wrath" Poseidon said glaring at his brothers.

**"But a quest to …" Grover swallowed. "I mean, couldn't the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine's very nice this time of year."**

"Nice Grover" Thalia joked.

**"Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt," Chiron insisted. "He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon. I don't pretend to understand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain. Percy must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth."**

"Turns out I was wrong. I apologize Lord Hades for wrongly accusing you "Chiron said.

"It is okay brother"Hades replied "it has happened before.

**A strange fire burned in my stomach. The weirdest thing was: it wasn't fear. It was anticipation. The desire for revenge. Hades had tried to kill me three times so far, with the Fury, the Minotaur, and the hellhound. It was his fault my mother had disappeared in a flash of light. Now he was trying to frame me and my dad for a theft we hadn't committed.**

**I was ready to take him on.**

"Let me know how that works out for ya" Nico said.

**Besides, if my mother was in the Underworld …**

"Quit thinking that way!" Sally said.

**Whoa, boy, said the small part of my brain that was still sane. You're a kid. Hades is a god.**

"Thank you!" Sally said.

**Grover was trembling. He'd started eating pinochle cards like potato chips.**

"Sorry?" Grover suggested after Dionysus glared at him for a few.

**The poor guy needed to complete a quest with me so he could get his searcher's license, whatever that was, but how could I ask him to do this quest, especially when the Oracle said I was destined to fail? This was suicide.**

**"Look, if we know it's Hades," I told Chiron, "why can't we just tell the other gods? Zeus or Poseidon could go down to the Underworld and bust some heads."**

"I would love to but..." Poseidon said.

**"Suspecting and knowing are not the same," Chiron said. "Besides, even if the other gods suspect Hades-and I imagine Poseidon does-they couldn't retrieve the bolt themselves. Gods cannot cross each other's territories except by invitation. **

"Which is why Athena and Poseidon aren't aloud to do anything about Percy and Annabeth here" Aphrodite said "my territory."

**That is another ancient rule. Heroes, on the other hand, have certain privileges. They can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as they're bold enough and strong enough to do it. No god can be held responsible for a hero's actions. Why do you think the gods always operate through humans?"**

**"You're saying I'm being used."**

Poseidon cringed.

**"I'm saying it's no accident Poseidon has claimed you now. It's a very risky gamble, but he's in a desperate situation. He needs you."**

**My dad needs me.**

**Emotions rolled around inside me like bits of glass in a kaleidoscope. I didn't know whether to feel resentful or grateful or happy or angry. Poseidon had ignored me for twelve years. Now suddenly he needed me.**

"I would have loved to see you and be there with you and your mother Percy" Poseidon said.

"I know, my feeling have changed since then" Percy said.

Poseidon shrunk down to mortal size and hugged his favorite son in front of all his relatives.

Luke narrowed his eyes.

_"A God actually cares?"_ he thought.

**I looked at Chiron. "You've known I was Poseidon's son all along, haven't you?"**

**"I had my suspicions. As I said … I've spoken to the Oracle, too."**

**I got the feeling there was a lot he wasn't telling me about his prophecy, but I decided I couldn't worry about that right now. After all, I was holding back information too.**

**"So let me get this straight," I said. "I'm supposed go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead."**

**"Check," Chiron said.**

**"Find the most powerful weapon in the universe."**

**"Check."**

**"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days."**

**"That's about right."**

"He makes it sound easy" Thalia said.

"It wasn't" Percy promised.

Poseidon and Sally both paled.

**looked at Grover, who gulped down the ace of hearts.**

Dionysus grumbled something about stupid card eating satyrs.

**"Did I mention that Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asked weakly.**

Weak chuckles were heard all around.

**"You don't have to go," I told him. "I can't ask that of you.**

**"Oh …" He shifted his hooves. "No … it's just that satyrs and underground places … well…"**

**He took a deep breath, then stood, brushing the shredded cards and aluminum bits off his T-shirt. "You saved my life, Percy. If … if you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let you down."**

"Of course" Percy said.

"Thanks Percy" Grover said.

**I felt so relieved I wanted to cry, though I didn't think that would be very heroic. Grover was the only friend I'd ever had for longer than a few months. I wasn't sure what good a satyr could do against the forces of the dead, but I felt better knowing he'd be with me.**

**"All the way, G-man." I turned to Chiron. "So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west."**

**"The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America."**

**"Where?"**

**Chiron looked surprised. "I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles."**

**"Oh," I said. "Naturally. So we just get on a plane-"**

"NO!" Poseidon and Sally yelled.

"I didn't mom, dad" Percy said quickly, it was the first time he had ever said mom and dad right after each other in the same sentence.

**"No!" Grover shrieked. "Percy, what are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?"**

**I shook my head, feeling embarrassed. My mom had never taken me anywhere by plane. She'd always said we didn't have the money. Besides, her parents had died in a plane crash.**

"No, I knew not to let you on a plane "Sally said.

Zeus looked down in guilt.

**"Percy, think," Chiron said. "You are the son of the Sea God. Your father's bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane. You would be in Zeus's domain. You would never come down again alive."**

Poseidon growled.

**Overhead, lightning crackled. Thunder boomed.**

**"Okay," I said, determined not to look at the storm. "So, I'll travel overland."**

**"That's right," Chiron said. "Two companions may accompany you. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help."**

**"Gee," I said, feigning surprise. "Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a quest like this?"**

**The air shimmered behind Chiron.**

**Annabeth became visible, stuffing her Yankees cap into her back pocket.**

"How long were you there?" Percy asked.

"The entire time "Annabeth said.

"I knew it!" Percy said.

**"I've been waiting a long time for a quest, seaweed brain," **

"Beginning of a new nickname" Nico joked.

"I still call him Prissy" Clarisse said.

"I still call him stupid" Thalia joked.

Percy pouted as the two girls gave each other high-fives.

**she said. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon, but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up."**

"True" Athena said.

**"If you do say so yourself," I said. "I suppose you have a plan, wise girl?"**

**Her cheeks colored. "Do you want my help or not?"**

**The truth was, I did. I needed all the help I could get.**

"You also wanted to spend time with her "Aphrodite said and the couple blushed.

**"A trio," I said. "That'll work."**

**"Excellent," Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own."**

**Lightning flashed. Rain poured down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather.**

**"No time to waste," Chiron said. "I think you should all get packing**.

"Thus begins Percy's messed up life, and the era of Percabeth!" Nico said.

"That is the end of the chapter" Hestia said "Who shall read?" she held the book in the air.

"I will!" Apollo said and took the book.

* * *

**Remember! new poll! i need 50 people to vote on it! review please. 100 reviewer gets a chapter dedicated to each of them! i love this story. it has earned more review in about 2 weeks than my harry potterones have in like 3 months! (the highest one has 13 review and this one has like 62)**

**btw...the typos are because im to lazy to go back to fix them (i've seen worse) and ive tried a beta reader but they are unreliable. you guys can either wait like 3 weeks for a new chapter and have it perfectly edited OR have a new chapter everyday and not edited and have typos! your choice.**

**ps: happy december! 23 days till christmas whooooooooooooooooo!:D**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	13. I Ruin A Perfectly Good Bus

**i added a little more romance to this chapter;) lets get up to 100 reviews i know you guys can do it! :D 100th reviewer gets a chpater dedicated to them. thank you.**

**disclaimer: i do not own PJO**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

"I** ruin A Perfectly Good Bus," **Apollo read.

"Doesn't sound good" Poseidon said and slouched in his seat, mentally preparing himself for the chapter.

"Why you gotta ruin a bus?" Leo asked.

"Habit of mine" Percy said and shrugged.

**It didn't take me long to pack. I decided to leave the Minotaur horn in my cabin, which left me only an extra change of clothes and a toothbrush to stuff in a backpack Grover had found for me.**

"That's not much" Jason said.

"We lost it all" Percy replied.

**The camp store loaned me one hundred dollars in mortal money **

"Yeah! 'loan'" Travis said "No one ever pays it back."

**and twenty golden drachmas. These coins were as big as Girl Scout cookies and had images of various Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other. The ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, Chiron told us, but Olympians never used less than pure gold. Chiron said the coins might come in handy for non-mortal transactions-whatever that meant. He gave Annabeth and me each a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies, if we were seriously hurt. It was god food, Chiron reminded us. It would cure us of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn us up, literally.**

"Remind me not to eat to much of that stuff" Leo said.

**Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which she told me had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. **

Athena smiled at her daughter.

"It comes in handy?" she asked.

"I've used it in many sticky situations" Annabeth said "I always have it with me" she took the magic cap out and set it in her lap.

**She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve. I was sure the knife would get us busted the first time we went through a metal detector.**

"Seaweed Brain" Annabeth said and shook her head.

"I didn't know" Percy said.

"I love you" she sighed.

"I love you more" Percy answered.

"I love you most, I win!" Annabeth said and smiled triumphetely.

Thalia and Nico gagged.

Annabeth and Percy kissed making Nico and Thalia gag even more.

"Get a room" Travis said.

Percy stuck his tongue out at him as Annabeth leaned against him and he put him arms around her.

Aphrodite was squirming and smiling like an idiot.

**Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday," both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.**

"Gee thanks Percy" Grover said sarcastically.

"Sorry G-Man" Percy replied.

**We waved good-bye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the ocean, and the Big House, then hiked up Half-Blood Hill to the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus.**

Zeus looked at his daughter with grief.

Jason was eyeing his sister.

_"Why does she seem so...familiar?"_ he thought.

**Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair. Next to him stood the surfer dude I'd seen when I was recovering in the sick room. According to Grover, the guy was the camp's head of security. He supposedly had eyes all over his body so he could never be surprised. Today, though, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, so I could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.**

**"This is Argus," Chiron told me. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things."**

"Terrible" Hermes said shaking his head.

Hera smiled, like she did and will do everytime her old friend is mentioned.

**I heard footsteps behind us.**

**Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes.**

Grover flinched slightly.

**"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."**

**Annabeth blushed, the way she always did when Luke was around.**

"I was not!" Annabeth protested and blushed. Luke was also showing a hint of blush in his cheeks.

"Yes you were" Percy and Grover and Chiron said.

"Hmph" Annabeth said as Percy chuckled and wrapped his arms tighter around her.

**"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke told me. "And I thought … um, maybe you could use these."**

**He handed me the sneakers, which looked pretty normal. They even smelled kind of normal.**

**Luke said, "Maia!"**

Hermes was lifted off his throne and hit his head on the ceiling.

"Ow" he said "Maia."

Hermes returned to his throne.

"The key word is your mom's name?" Apollo asked.

"Yeah..." Hermes said and blushed a little.

"Awww how sweet" Hera said.

"Dad?" Connor asked.

"Yes?" Hermes said.

"Can I have a pair?" Connor replied.

Hermes smiled and snapped his fingers and in Chris, Connor, Travis and Luke's lap was a shoe box each one had a pair of the flying basketball shoes.

"Thank you!" Travis said and put them on.

"Cool!" Connor said, who had his on.

Suddenly the 2 brothers rushed forward and gave their dad a huge hug.

"We love you!" they said and Hermes hugged them back half chuckling and half crying (tears of joy).

_"I haven't hugged a child of mine in forever"_ he thought.

"Your welcome. Use them for good pranks" Hermes said aloud.

"Of ourse" the Stoll brothers said together and went to sit by the demigods, who were still in togas.

Once Travis sat down Katie leaned against hima nd he put his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

Aphrodite squeled again.

**bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, startling me so much, I dropped them. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.**

**"Awesome!" Grover said.**

"Not awesome" Grover said much to low for anyone to hear.

**Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days…." His expression turned sad.**

Hermes's smiled faded slightly.

**I didn't know what to say. It was cool enough that Luke had come to say good-bye. I'd been afraid he might resent me for getting so much attention the last few days. But here he was giving me a magic gift…. It made me blush almost as much as Annabeth.**

"I wasn't blushing" Annabeth said...blushing.

"Suuuuuure" Percy said.

**"Hey, man," I said. "Thanks."**

**"Listen, Percy …" Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just … kill some monsters for me, okay?"**

"Did you?" Ares asked.

"You'll see" Percy said.

**We shook hands. Luke patted Grover's head between his horns, then gave a good-bye hug to Annabeth, who looked like she might pass out.**

**After Luke was gone, I told her, "You're hyperventilating."**

Everyone laughed, well except for Annabeth and Luke, who were blushing like crazy.

**"Am not."**

**"You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn't you?"**

**"Oh … why do I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?"**

"I don't know" Percy said.

**She stomped down the other side of the hill, where a white SUV waited on the shoulder of the road. Argus followed, jingling his car keys.**

**I picked up the flying shoes and had a sudden bad feeling. I looked at Chiron. "I won't be able to use these, will I?"**

Luke frowned a little but realized why he can't use them and understood.

**He shook his head. "Luke meant well, Percy. But taking to the air … that would not be wise for you."**

Zeus smiled wickedly and Poseidon glared at him.

**I nodded, disappointed, but then I got an idea. "Hey, Grover. You want a magic item?"**

**His eyes lit up. "Me?"**

"Sorry bout that" Percy whispered.

"S' okay" Grover whispered back.

**Pretty soon we'd laced the sneakers over his fake feet, and the world's first flying goat boy was ready for launch.**

**"Maia!" he shouted.**

"Maia."

**He got off the ground okay, but then fell over sideways so his backpack dragged through the grass. The winged shoes kept bucking up and down like tiny broncos.**

**"Practice," Chiron called after him. "You just need practice!"**

**"Aaaaa!" Grover went flying sideways down the hill like a possessed lawn mower, heading toward the van.**

Everyone laughed whereas Grover blushed.

**Before I could follow, Chiron caught my arm. "I should have trained you better, Percy," he said. "If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason-they all got more training."**

"Yeah I did" Jason said and people laughed.

**"That's okay. I just wish-"**

**I stopped myself because I was about to sound like a brat. I was wishing my dad had given me a cool magic item to help on the quest, something as good as Luke's flying shoes, or Annabeth's invisible cap.**

Poseidon was trying not to smile.

**"What am I thinking?" Chiron cried. "I can't let you get away without this."**

**He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to me. It was an ordinary disposable ballpoint, black ink, removable cap. Probably cost thirty cents.**

**"Gee," I said. "Thanks."**

"Wow" Nico said shaking his head.

Percy took the pen out and was turning it over in his hand.

**"Percy, that's a gift from your father. I've kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one."**

**I remembered the field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, when I'd vaporized Mrs. Dodds. Chiron had thrown me a pen that turned into a sword. Could this be … ?**

**I took off the cap, and the pen grew longer and heavier in my hand. In half a second, I held a shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip, and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs. It was the first weapon that actually felt balanced in my hand.**

Percy uncapped Riptide, his best weapon, grew in his hand.

"Thanks Dad" Percy said.

"Your welcome son" Poseidon said.

**"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into," Chiron told me. "Its name is Anaklusmos."**

**"'Riptide,'" I translated, surprised the Ancient Greek came so easily.**

**"Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but this sword wouldn't harm them in any case."**

**I looked at the wickedly sharp blade. "What do you mean it wouldn't harm mortals? How could it not?"**

**"The sword is celestial bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe. It's deadly to monsters, to any creature from the Underworld, provided they don't kill you first. But the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply are not important enough for the blade to kill. **

"Not important enough" Sally said a little relieved.

**And I should warn you: as a demigod, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are twice as vulnerable."**

**"Good to know."**

**"Now recap the pen."**

**I touched the pen cap to the sword tip and instantly Riptide shrank to a ballpoint pen again. I tucked it in my pocket, a little nervous, because I was famous for losing pens at school.**

**"You can't," Chiron said.**

**"Can't what?"**

**"Lose the pen," he said. "It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it."**

"Chiron! You never told me you can read minds!" Travis said.

"I can't. I am good at reading emotions" Chiron answered.

**I was wary, but I threw the pen as far as I could down the hill and watched it disappear in the grass.**

**"It may take a few moments," Chiron told me. "Now check your pocket."**

**Sure enough, the pen was there.**

"Cool!" Leo yelled.

"I love this sowrd" Percy said.

Leo turned to Jason.

"Can your coin sword/javelin do that?" he asked.

"No" Jason said.

Leo shrugged.

"Yours is still way cool...flip it, it turns up tails you get a javelin, turns up heads you get a sword" Leo said "You both have wicked weapons."

"Well the leader of camp needs to have a good weapon to defend his home" Jason and Percy said at the same time and looked at each other.

Piper and Annabeth were looking between them, hoping things don't turn into a fight.

"What camp are you a leader of?" Percy asked.

"Camp Jupiter" Jason replied "you?"

"Camp Half-Blood" Percy replied "Greek."

"Roman."

The two boys looked to the gods.

"We'll explain at lunch" Zeus said.

"After this chapter we have lunch" Percy said and Jason nodded.

"Very well"Zeus said.

**"Okay, that's extremely cool," I admitted. "But what if a mortal sees me pulling out a sword?"**

**Chiron smiled. "Mist is a powerful thing, Percy."**

**"Mist?"**

**"Yes. Read The Iliad. It's full of references to the stuff. Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans. You will see things just as they are, being a half-blood, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality."**

Hermes chuckled.

**I put Riptide back in my pocket.**

**For the first time, the quest felt real. I was actually leaving Half-Blood Hill. I was heading west with no adult supervision, no backup plan, not even a cell phone. (Chiron said cell phones were traceable by monsters; if we used one, it would be worse than sending up a flare.) I had no weapon stronger than a sword to fight off monsters and reach the Land of the Dead.**

"Optimistic" Nico commented.

**"Chiron …" I said. "When you say the gods are immortal… I mean, there was a time before them, right?"**

**"Four ages before them, actually. The Time of the Titans was the Fourth Age, sometimes called the Golden Age, which is definitely a misnomer. This, the time of Western civilization and the rule of Zeus, is the Fifth Age."**

**"So what was it like … before the gods?"**

**Chiron pursed his lips. "Even I am not old enough to remember that, child, but I know it was a time of darkness and savagery for mortals. Kronos, the lord of the Titans, called his reign the Golden Age because men lived innocent and free of all knowledge. But that was mere propaganda. The Titan king cared nothing for your kind except as appetizers or a source of cheap entertainment. It was only in the early reign of Lord Zeus, when Prometheus the good Titan brought fire to mankind, that your species began to progress, and even then Prometheus was branded a radical thinker. Zeus punished him severely, as you may recall. Of course, eventually the gods warmed to humans, and Western civilization was born."**

"The future demigods from Camp Half-Blood shuddered.

Percy held Annabeth tightly and she layed her head on his chest, he kissed her head.

On the other couch Travis had Katie wrapped in his arms and she had her head on his chest and every once in a while she would look up and kiss him, knowing how hard the war was on him.

Jason was remembering traces of a war and Piper could tell he was upset so she was snuggled close to him and layed her head on his shoulder.

Aphrodite was proud of her handiwork with the young demigods.

Ares noticed Aphrodite smiling smugly and for some reason she kept eyeing his daughter, Clarisse? What was up with that?

**"But the gods can't die now, right? I mean, as long as Western civilization is alive, they're alive. So … even if I failed, nothing could happen so bad it would mess up everything, right?"**

"You're not gonna fail...not with me there" Annabeth said.

**Chiron gave me a melancholy smile. "No one knows how long the Age of the West will last, Percy. The gods are immortal, yes. But then, so were the Titans. They still exist, locked away in their various prisons, forced to endure endless pain and punishment, reduced in power, but still very much alive. May the Fates forbid that the gods should ever suffer such a doom, or that we should ever return to the darkness and chaos of the past. All we can do, child, is follow our destiny."**

**"Our destiny … assuming we know what that is."**

"You wouldn't believe your destiny" Annabeth said.

**"Relax," Chiron told me. "Keep a clear head. And remember, you may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history."**

"Yeah Chiron" Connor said "that'll get him to relax."

**"Relax," I said. "I'm very relaxed."**

**When I got to the bottom of the hill, I looked back. Under the pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Chiron was now standing in full horse-man form, holding his bow high in salute. Just your typical summer-camp send-off by your typical centaur.**

People chuckled.

**Argus drove us out of the countryside and into western Long Island. It felt weird to be on a highway again, Annabeth and Grover sitting next to me as if we were normal carpoolers. After two weeks at Half-Blood Hill, the real world seemed like a fantasy. I found myself staring at every McDonald's, every kid in the back of his parents' car, every billboard and shopping mall.**

**"So far so good," I told Annabeth. "Ten miles and not a single monster."**

**She gave me an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain."**

"It is" Athena confirmed.

"I didn't know!" Percy said.

**"Remind me again-why do you hate me so much?"**

**"I don't hate you."**

**"Could've fooled me."**

"Sorry about that" Annabeth whispered.

"It's fine wise girl...I still love you" Percy said.

**She folded her cap of invisibility. "Look … we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."**

**"Why?"**

Poseidon mumbled something about doing it on purpose.

Athena looked confused but dismissed it...she must've heard it wrong.

_"Stupid pretty, virgin, goddess of wisdom"_ Poseidon thought.

Athena never saw him looking at her but Aphrodite did and raised an eyebrow.

**She sighed. "How many reasons do you want? One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is hugely disrespectful. **

"Yes, disrespectful" Athena said glaring at him.

"Sorry" Poseidon said and Athena blinked.

"Did I hear you right?" Athena asked.

"I said sorry...love potion" Poseidon said.

"Oh" Athena said.

Aphrodite was smiling. Poseidon _liked_ Athena!

_"Oooooooooooooooh! This is gonna be good"_ she thought.

**Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her."**

Athen was thinking of retorts but Poseidon said nothing.

_"What is with him?"_ she thought.

**"They must really like olives."**

**"Oh, forget it."**

**"Now, if she'd invented pizza-that I could understand."**

Everyone laughed.

**"I said, forget it!"**

**In the front seat, Argus smiled. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at me.**

"Even Argus knew you guys liked each other" Thalia noted.

The couple blushed.

**Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time we got into Manhattan it was sunset and starting to rain.**

**Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and Gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with my picture on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?**

**I ripped it down before Annabeth and Grover could notice.**

"We noticed but we figured that you didn't want to talk about it" Annabeth said.

"Thanks" Percy said.

**Argus unloaded our bags, made sure we got our bus tickets, then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch us as he pulled out of the parking lot.**

**I thought about how close I was to my old apartment. On a normal day, my mom would be home from the candy store by now. Smelly Gabe was probably up there right now, playing poker, not even missing her.**

Poseidon growled.

**Grover shouldered his backpack. He gazed down the street in the direction I was looking. "You want to know why she married him, Percy?"**

**I stared at him. "Were you reading my mind or something?"**

**"Just your emotions." He shrugged. "Guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that. You were thinking about your mom and your stepdad, right?"**

**I nodded, wondering what else Grover might've forgotten to tell me.**

People chuckled weakly.

**"Your mom married Gabe for you," Grover told me. "You call him 'Smelly,' but you've got no idea. The guy has this aura…. Yuck. I can smell him from here. I can smell traces of him on you, and you haven't been near him for a week."**

**"Thanks," I said. "Where's the nearest shower?"**

"Wow" Thalia said.

**"You should be grateful, Percy. Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as I took a whiff inside his Camaro, I knew: Gabe has been covering your scent for years. If you hadn't lived with him every summer, you probably would've been found by monsters a long time ago. Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was a smart lady. She must've loved you a lot to put up with that guy-if that makes you feel any better."**

Sally hugged Percy.

**It didn't, but I forced myself not to show it. I'll see her again, I thought. She isn't gone.**

Sally looked down and Paul squeezed her hand.

**I wondered if Grover could still read my emotions, mixed up as they were. I was glad he and Annabeth were with me, but I felt guilty that I hadn't been straight with them. I hadn't told them the real reason I'd said yes to this crazy quest.**

**The truth was, I didn't care about retrieving Zeus's lightning bolt, or saving the world, or even helping my father out of trouble. The more I thought about it, I resented Poseidon for never visiting me, never helping my mom, never even sending a lousy child-support check. He'd only claimed me because he needed a job done.**

Poseidon hung his head.

**All I cared about was my mom. Hades had taken her unfairly, and Hades was going to give her back.**

"You'd better" Poseidon growled.

**You will be betrayed by one who calls you a friend, the Oracle whispered in my mind. You will fail to save what matters most in the end.**

Percy hung his head for a minute.

**Shut up, I told it.**

Nico chuckled.

**The rain kept coming down.**

**We got restless waiting for the bus and decided to play some Hacky Sack with one of Grover's apples. Annabeth was unbelievable. She could bounce the apple off her knee, her elbow, her shoulder, whatever. I wasn't too bad myself.**

"Full of yourself?" Thalia joked.

"No...I said that I was okay...I said Annabeth was unbelievable!" Percy said.

"He's got a point there" Nico said "he gave Annabeth more praise then he gave himself...gotta love our freakin humble Percy!"

"Where's this _our_ coming from...he's mine" Annabeth said with a smile.

**The game ended when I tossed the apple toward Grover and it got too close to his mouth. In one mega goat bite, our Hacky Sack disappeared-core, stem, and all.**

Everyone was laughing.

**Grover blushed. He tried to apologize, but Annabeth and I were too busy cracking up.**

**Finally the bus came. As we stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled his favorite school cafeteria delicacy-enchiladas.**

**"What is it?" I asked.**

**"I don't know," he said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."**

**But I could tell it wasn't nothing. I started looking over my shoulder, too.**

**I was relieved when we finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus. We stowed our backpacks. Annabeth kept slapping her Yankees cap nervously against her thigh.**

**As the last passengers got on, Annabeth clamped her hand onto my knee. "Percy."**

Aphrodite raised an eyebrow.

"It wasn't like that!" Annabeth and Percy yelled.

"Suuuuuuuuuuuure" Nico joked and Percy and Annabeth blushed.

**An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered, and my heart skipped a beat.**

**It was Mrs. Dodds. Older, more withered, but definitely the same evil face.**

Poseiodn glared at Hades.

**I scrunched down in my seat.**

**Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise they looked exactly like Mrs. Dodds-same gnarled hands, paisley handbags, wrinkled velvet dresses. Triplet demon grandmothers.**

Poseiodn paled.

"Your she-demons touch my son I will go to the Underworld and throw them into Tarturas myself" Poseidon growled at Hades and Hades gulped.

Sally was almost as pale as Poseidon, maybe even Hades, she was clutching Paul's hand as if it were her life line.

**They sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was casual enough, but it sent a clear message: nobody leaves.**

Poseidon gulped.

**The bus pulled out of the station, and we headed through the slick streets of Manhattan. "She didn't stay dead long," I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime."**

**"I said if you're lucky," Annabeth said. "You're obviously not."**

"We knew that" Nico said.

**"All three of them," Grover whimpered. "Di immortales!"**

"Language" Nico chited.

**"It's okay," Annabeth said, obviously thinking hard. "The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows."**

**"They don't open," Grover moaned.**

**"A back exit?" she suggested.**

**There wasn't one. **

"Who designed that bus?!" Hephaestus, Bekendorf and Leo said at the same and smiled at each other.

"Like father like...sons" Apollo said.

**Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, we were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.**

**"They won't attack us with witnesses around," I said. "Will they?"**

**"Mortals don't have good eyes," Annabeth reminded me. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist."**

**"They'll see three old ladies killing us, won't they?"**

**She thought about it. "Hard to say. But we can't count on mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof … ?"**

**We hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.**

**Mrs. Dodds got up. In a flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus: "I need to use the rest-room."**

**"So do I," said the second sister.**

**"So do I," said the third sister.**

**They all started coming down the aisle.**

Poseiodn had his eyes shut tight...this book is gonna be the death of him.

**"I've got it," Annabeth said. "Percy, take my hat."**

**"What?"**

**"You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away."**

"You know he's not gonna do that" Thalia said.

"Yeah..him and his stupid fatal flaw...personal loyalty" Annabeth said.

"Yup" Percy said and kissed her "loyal as a dog."

Annabeth giggled "good boy."

Connor and Chris were taken aback.

"Did Annabeth just giggle?" Nico asked behind them.

"You heard it too?" Connor asked.

"Just making sure I'm not going crazy" Nico confirmed and went back to his seat next to Thalia who was confused.

**"But you guys-"**

**"There's an outside chance they might not notice us," Annabeth said. "You're a son of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering."**

**"I can't just leave you."**

**"Don't worry about us," Grover said. "Go!"**

**My hands trembled. I felt like a coward, but I took the Yankees cap and put it on.**

**When I looked down, my body wasn't there anymore.**

**I started creeping up the aisle. I managed to get up ten rows, then duck into an empty seat just as the Furies walked past.**

**Mrs. Dodds stopped, sniffing, and looked straight at me. My heart was pounding.**

**Apparently she didn't see anything. She and her sisters kept going.**

**I was free. I made it to the front of the bus. We were almost through the Lincoln Tunnel now. I was about to press the emergency stop button when I heard hideous wailing from the back row.**

**The old ladies were not old ladies anymore. Their faces were still the same-I guess those couldn't get any uglier- but their bodies had shriveled into leathery brown hag bodies with bat's wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws. Their handbags had turned into fiery whips.**

**The Furies surrounded Grover and Annabeth, lashing their whips, hissing: "Where is it? Where?"**

"Where is _it_?!" Athena asked "What is it?"

**The other people on the bus were screaming, cowering in their seats. They saw something, all right.**

**"He's not here!" Annabeth yelled. "He's gone!"**

**The Furies raised their whips.**

**Annabeth drew her bronze knife. Grover grabbed a tin can from his snack bag and prepared to throw it.**

**What I did next was so impulsive and dangerous I should've been named ADHD poster child of the year.**

"You should be ADHD poster child of the century" Annabeth said.

**The bus driver was distracted, trying to see what was going on in his rearview mirror.**

**Still invisible, I grabbed the wheel from him and jerked it to the left. Everybody howled as they were thrown to the right, and I heard what I hoped was the sound of three Furies smashing against the windows.**

**"Hey!" the driver yelled. "Hey-whoa!"**

**We wrestled for the wheel. The bus slammed against the side of the tunnel, grinding metal, throwing sparks a mile behind us.**

"Was anyone hurt?" Hestia asked.

"I don't think so" Percy replied.

**We careened out of the Lincoln Tunnel and back into the rainstorm, people and monsters tossed around the bus, cars plowed aside like bowling pins.**

**Somehow the driver found an exit. We shot off the highway, through half a dozen traffic lights, and ended up barreling down one of those New Jersey rural roads where you can't believe there's so much nothing right across the river from New York. There were woods to our left, the Hudson River to our right, and the driver seemed to be veering toward the river.**

**Another great idea: I hit the emergency brake.**

"How is that a great idea?" Athena asked and Percy shrugged.

**The bus wailed, spun a full circle on the wet asphalt, and crashed into the trees. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open. The bus driver was the first one out, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him. I stepped into the driver's seat and let them pass.**

**The Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips at Annabeth while she waved her knife and yelled in Ancient Greek, telling them to back off. Grover threw tin cans.**

**I looked at the open doorway. I was free to go, but I couldn't leave my friends. I took off the invisible cap. "Hey!"**

**The Furies turned, baring their yellow fangs at me, and the exit suddenly seemed like an excellent idea. Mrs. Dodds stalked up the aisle, just as she used to do in class, about to deliver my F- math test. Every time she flicked her whip, red flames danced along the barbed leather.**

**Her two ugly sisters hopped on top of the seats on either side of her and crawled toward me like huge nasty lizards.**

Poseidon was as pale as Hades and muttering curses to Hades and swears on the River Styx.

**"Perseus Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said, in an accent that was definitely from somewhere farther south than Georgia. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."**

**"I liked you better as a math teacher," I told her.**

**She growled.**

**Annabeth and Grover moved up behind the Furies cautiously, looking for an opening.**

**I took the ballpoint pen out of my pocket and uncapped it. Riptide elongated into a shimmering double-edged sword.**

**The Furies hesitated.**

**Mrs. Dodds had felt Riptide's blade before. She obviously didn't like seeing it again.**

**"Submit now," she hissed. "And you will not suffer eternal torment."**

"Riiiiiiiiiiight" Thalia said.

**"Nice try," I told her.**

**"Percy, look out!" Annabeth cried.**

**Mrs. Dodds lashed her whip around my sword hand while the Furies on the either side lunged at me.**

**My hand felt like it was wrapped in molten lead, but I managed not to drop Riptide. I stuck the Fury on the left with its hilt, sending her toppling backward into a seat. I turned and sliced the Fury on the right. As soon as the blade connected with her neck, she screamed and exploded into dust. Annabeth got Mrs. Dodds in a wrestler's hold and yanked her backward while Grover ripped the whip out of her hands.**

"Not bad" Athena said.

"Thank you" Percy said.

"You got some fight in ya punk" Ares said.

Percy thanked the war god.

**"Ow!" he yelled. "Ow! Hot! Hot!"**

"What did you think it would feel like?" Nico asked.

Grover blushed.

**The Fury I'd hilt-slammed came at me again, talons ready, but I swung Riptide and she broke open like a piñata.**

**Mrs. Dodds was trying to get Annabeth off her back. She kicked, clawed, hissed and bit, but Annabeth held on while Grover got Mrs. Dodds's legs tied up in her own whip. Finally they both shoved her backward into the aisle. Mrs. Dodds tried to get up, but she didn't have room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling down.**

**"Zeus will destroy you!" **

"Tempting" Zeus said and Poseidon growled at him.

**she promised. "Hades will have your soul!"**

"Still debating" Hades said and Poseidon glared at him.

**"Braccas meas vescimini!" I yelled.**

Jason, Hazel and Frank began to laugh.

"What?!" Percy asked.

The three shook their heads and motioned for Apollo to keep reading.

**I wasn't sure where the Latin came from. I think it meant "Eat my pants!"**

Everyone started to laugh.

**Thunder shook the bus. The hair rose on the back of my neck.**

"ZEUS!" Poseidon thundered and a squall of planes went down in the mid Pacific.

ZZeus was avoinding his brother's glare and shrank down in his throne.

**"Get out!" Annabeth yelled at me. "Now!" I didn't need any encouragement.**

**We rushed outside and found the other passengers wandering around in a daze, arguing with the driver, or running around in circles yelling, "We're going to die!"**

Hermes and Apollo chuckled at the image.

**A Hawaiian-shirted tourist with a camera snapped my photograph before I could recap my sword.**

**"Our bags!" Grover realized. "We left our-"**

**BOOOOOM!**

**The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof, but an angry wail from inside told me Mrs. Dodds was not yet dead.**

**"Run!" Annabeth said. "She's calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!"**

**We plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind us, and nothing but darkness ahead.**

"End of chapter" Apollo said.

"Lunch" Percy said and nodded to Jason.

All the demigods filed out of the throne room except Percy and Jason.

They were now in a room, alone, with a lot of super beings.

"What's this about another camp?" Percy and Jason said at the same time.

Zeus sighed and leaned forward to tell them about the 2 camps...

* * *

**cliffhangers:) btw...my athena and poseidon thing will go NO FURTHER than this! it will stay just this way. poseidon won't act upon his little crush and athena will never find out...unless i get at least 50 reviews telling me to take it further...other than that...no**

**ps: comment on the amount of romance, to much? to little? just right? tell me! i thought it was cute:) if ur wondering all the demigods and mortal are sitting on couches.**

**percy and annabeth, travis and katie, piper and jason all have loveseats...just in case no one gets confused:)**

**review and check out my poll! love ya guys**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	14. Explanation and Pothena?

**i added some more Poseidon and athena stuff btw... check out my poll if you want a fight between the children of the big three!:D also if anyone wants to pm me about plans aphrodite can use to get poseidon and athena together then go ahead...ill welcome them:) review plz!**

**disclaimer:i am not rick riodran...so i don't own PJO**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

"Where to begin" Zeus said.

"How about the beginning?" Percy said.

"Very well" Zeus said.

"You both know about Western Civilization right?" Zeus asked.

"Yes" Percy and Jason said.

"You know that it started in Greece?" Zeus said.

"Of course" Percy said and Jason nodded.

"It started with the gods "Zeus said "but, as I assume you two know, the fire spread to Rome."

The boys nodded.

"The gods changed forms. I became Jupiter, Poseidon became Neptune, Hera became Juno and so on. Then we moved to England, France, Spain and now America. You know that us, the gods, had, and still have, heroes. But here's what you don't know. We could appear in whatever form we wanted, Greek or Roman. When Poseidon showed himself to your mother Percy, Sally, he was Poseidon...Greek. When I showed myself to your mother Jason, I was Jupiter...Roman" Zeus said.

"Okay..." Percy said trying to wrap his head around it.

"Why haven't we heard of each other before?" Jason asked.

"During the American Civil War, there was a fight between Roman demigods and Greek demigods. No one won. It ended badly, no survivors. We actually had to kill them" the god looked down "It was then I realized, Greeks and Romans do not mix. So I seperated you guys. Romans went to California and Greeks went to New York. We were afraid that you would fight again and cause the same bloodshed."

"Why don't we mix? I don't see anything wrong with Percy?" Jason said.

"Yeah, there's nothing wrong with Jason. Why would we quarrel?" Percy said.

"Numerous reasons" Zeus said "Children of Athena are not excepted by Romans, and you should know Percy, children of Athena are very good fighters" Percy nodded "anyway Romans do not approve of Athena's children because Athena is a virgin goddess and they believe it is against her oath to maiden hood that she have children. Greeks resent Romans because the Roman conquered them during the time of the Roman Empire. There are other reasons too. We did not want anymore bloodshed between our children and so to this day Romans and Greeks have been seperated. Is that an okay answer?" Zeus finished.

"Yeah I guess" Percy said.

"Very well. Lets go eat!" Zeus said and the remaining people in the throne room went to the kitchen for dinner.

* * *

Percy came into the kitchen and sat down by Annabeth.

"I thought Zeus zapped you with his Master Bolt" she joked.

Percy shrugged.

Annabeth stood up and pulled Percy up.

"We're going for a short walk. I want to stretch my legs" Annabeth said.

Percy and Annaebth walked outside, hand in hand.

Thalia and Nico started to chuckle.

"They're a perfect match" Silena said.

"Yeah, they balance each other out. They're the perfect team" Katie said.

"Do they ever fight?" Aphrodite asked.

Thalia thought about it for a second.

"Yeah. But it was over something stupid" she said.

"What was it about?" Athena asked.

"Who was the better fighter" Thalia said.

"My daughter" Athena said.

"No my son" Poseidon answerd.

"Only if he has a bucket of water dumped on him" Athena retorted and to her surprise Poseidon said nothing.

"What is with you today?!" she exclaimed.

"What?" Poseidon asked.

"Normally you retort after I say something like that" Athena replied.

Poseidon shrugged and went back to his pizza.

Athena was getting a little annoyed.

_"Why the hell won't he argue with me?!" _she thought_ "I love arguing with him. Now he's acting nice and I don't like it!_

Poseidon caught himself staring at the goddess of Wisdom.

_"No Poseidon" _he thought_ "she hates you and you're supposed to hate her. You can't like her."_

Athena looked up and saw Poseidon watching her, she blushed and looked down quickly.

The next time she looked up he was looking down.

It looked like he was avoiding looking at her.

She looked around saw Aphrodite smiling at her.

"Poseidon likes you" she mouthed.

Athena looked at Poseidon and he was looking at her but dropped his gaze instantly.

"Me?" Athena mouthed back and Aphrodite nodded.

Athena couldn't pretend she never thought about him that way before because she has...numerous times. The real reason she turned Medusa into a gorgon was out of jealousy she tried to purposely lose Athens because she wanted him to be their patron but sadly she had won. Athena sighed and went back to her euro.

Aphrodite saw Athena sigh and smiled she liked him! She's gonna have to set them up but how? How...

Everyone finished eating and filed back into the throne room, Annabeth and Percy joined them a little later.

Aphrodite raised and eyebrow wondering where they had been.

"Who shall read?" Apollo said in a bad impression of Athena.

Athena glared at him.

"I will!" Zeus said and Apollo handed the book to his father.

* * *

**How'd you all like it?! Review please and help me with pothena plans! in the next chapter athena and poseidon may have a heart attack...stupid medusa;)**

**poll! check it out!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	15. We Visit The Garden Gnome Emporium

**this chapter is deicated to MrsEDarcy...the 100th reviewer!**

**please read and review and check out my polls **

**btw...i am not a man so i dont own the pjo series thank you!**

**the next chapter will be dedicated to...**

**1. the reviewer who has reviewed the most**

**2. the 125th reviewer**

**3. the 2 people who added me to their communties.**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

**"We visit the Garden Gnome Emporium," **Zeus read.

Annabeth leaned in to whisper something in Percy's ear.

"Our parents are gonna have a heart-attack" Annabeth said.

"I know" Percy said.

**In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there,**

"Awwww. You like us" Hermes said.

**because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong. **

"Never mind" Hermes huffed.

**For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.**

"Well your day is only being ruined by your two idiot uncles" Poseidon said.

"Watch it brother" Zeus warned.

**So there we were, Annabeth and Grover and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind us, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses.**

"I should really go clean out that river..." Poseidon said.

**Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."**

The demigods shuddered.

**I was pretty much in shock myself. The explosion of bus windows still rang in my ears. But Annabeth kept pulling us along, saying: "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."**

**"All our money was back there," I reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything."**

**"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight-"**

"Why are you blaming him for being loyal?" Jason asked.

Annabeth shrugged.

**"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"**

**"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."**

"He just wants to protect his little girlfriend" Aphrodite cooed.

"We weren't dating at the time" Percy said blushing "so she was just a crush."

**"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."**

**"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth.**

Everyone chuckled.

**Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans … a perfectly good bag of tin cans."**

Grover blushed and everyone laughed.

**We sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.**

"You would know with that pile of clothes in your room" Sally said.

"Mommmmmm" Percy whined.

"And that room of yours looks like a tornado blew through it" Sally said.

"If I promise to clean it when we're done will you stop?" Percy asked.

"I suppose..." Sally said smiling.

**After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to me. "Look, I…" Her voice faltered. "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."**

**"We're a team, right?"**

**She was silent for a few more steps. "It's just that if you died … aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."**

"You're really worried aren't cha?" Travis said.

"Shut up" Annabeth said.

**The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind us, leaving us in almost total darkness. I couldn't see anything of Annabeth except a glint of her blond hair.**

"Don't say a thing" Percy said and Aphrodite, Nico, and Thalia all shut their mouths.

**"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" I asked her.**

**"No … only short field trips. My dad-"**

**"The history professor."**

**"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home." She was rushing her words out now, as if she were afraid somebody might try to stop her. "At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."**

**If I didn't know better, I could've sworn I heard doubt in her voice.**

"Never doubt yourself daughter" Athena said "You're better than most at your camp."

"Thanks mom" Annabeth said.

**"You're pretty good with that knife," I said.**

**"You think so?"**

**"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me."**

**I couldn't really see, but I thought she might've smiled.**

"I did smile" Annabeth said.

**You know," she said, "maybe I should tell you … Something funny back on the bus …"**

**Whatever she wanted to say was interrupted by a shrill toot-toot-toot, like the sound of an owl being tortured.**

"Thaaaaaanks" Grover said sarcastically.

**"Hey, my reed pipes still work!"**

Everyone laughed.

**Grover cried. "If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!"**

**He puffed out a few notes, but the tune still sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff.**

**Instead of finding a path, I immediately slammed into a tree and got a nice-size knot on my head.**

Percy rubbed the spot as everyone laughed.

**Add to the list of superpowers I did not have: infrared vision.**

**After tripping and cursing and generally feeling miserable for an****other mile or so, I started to see light up ahead: the colors of a neon sign. I could smell food. Fried, greasy, excellent food. I realized I hadn't eaten anything unhealthy since I'd arrived at Half-Blood Hill, where we lived on grapes, bread, cheese, and extra-lean-cut nymph-prepared barbecue. This boy needed a double cheeseburger.**

"I know the feeling" Luke said and the other Camp half-Blood demigods nodded their heads in agreement.

**We kept walking until I saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the good smell.**

**It wasn't a fast-food restaurant like I'd hoped. It was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that. The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary. The neon sign above the gate was impossible for me to read, because if there's anything worse for my dyslexia than regular English, it's red cursive neon English.**

Demigods nodded.

**To me, it looked like: **

"How the Hades am I supposed to read that?" Zeus said.

**ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM.**

"You sound like you were chanting a ritual or something" Apollo said.

**"What the heck does that say?" I asked.**

**"I don't know," Annabeth said.**

**She loved reading so much, I'd forgotten she was dyslexic, too.**

**Grover translated: "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."**

Annabeth, Grover and Percy flinched and it did not go unoticed.

"What happened?" Poseidon and Athena said at the same time causing them to blush.

"You'll see" Percy said

**Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken.**

**I crossed the street, following the smell of the hamburgers.**

**"Hey …" Grover warned.**

**"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."**

**"Snack bar," I said wistfully.**

**"Snack bar," she agreed.**

"Just goes to show how hungry one gets on a quest "Thalia said.

**"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird."**

**We ignored him.**

"Course ya did" Athena said "why wouldn't you listen to the protector who can smell monsters?"

"Athena," Poseidon said "they are here now which means they did not die. So please calm down cause you going into hysterics."

Athena calmed down.

Percy raised an eyebrow at his dad.

**The front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.**

Grover shuddered.

**"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"**

**We stopped at the warehouse door.**

**"Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."**

**"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," Annabeth told him. "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"**

"Listen to the satyr" Athena and Poseidon said.

**"Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."**

**"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans," I reminded him.**

**"Those are vegetables. Come on. Let's leave. These statues are … looking at me."**

"I know the feeling just by living in the Underworld" Nico said.

"I do love my garden" Persephone said.

**Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of us was a tall Middle Eastern woman-at least, I assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled. Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all I could make out. Her coffee-colored hands looked old, but well-manicured and elegant, so I imagined she was a grandmother who had once been a beautiful lady.**

Poseidon reconized her.

"This book is going to be the death of me" he said.

"Why?" Apollo asked.

"You guys are in Medusa's lair aren't you?" Poseidon asked.

"Yeah..." Percy said.

Athena paled and Poseidon was clutching his trident so hard his knuckles turned as white as Hades's face.

Sally was as pale as the ghosts in the Underworld.

"It's when people get turned into a statue that I wished I didn't turn her into a gorgon" Athena said.

"It was my fault. I fell for her little trick with the love potion and led her to your temple" Poseidon said "I'm sorry." his apology was aimed at Athena and the the 3 friends entering her lair in the book.

"Apology accepted" Athena said.

**Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too. She said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"**

**"They're … um …" Annabeth started to say.**

**"We're orphans," I said.**

**"Orphans?" the woman said. The word sounded alien in her mouth. "But, my dears! Surely not!"**

**"We got separated from our caravan," I said. "Our circus caravan. The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?"**

"Wow Percy" Thalia said shaking her head.

**"Oh, my dears," the woman said. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."**

**We thanked her and went inside.**

**Annabeth muttered to me, "Circus caravan?"**

**"Always have a strategy, right?"**

**"Your head is full of kelp."**

"It's my smart moments that I clean it out" Percy joked.

**The warehouse was filled with more statues-people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. I was thinking you'd have to have a pretty huge garden to fit even one of these statues, because they were all life-size. But mostly, I was thinking about food.**

Nico was shaking his head.

**Go ahead, call me an idiot **

"Idiot" Poseidon said to Zeus.

"Poseidon!" Zeus said.

"What you said to call you an idiot" Poseidon said.

"It's in the book" Zeus said.

"Oh...you're still an idiot" Poseidon said and Zeus continued to read before the Great Lakes flooded from all the rain.

**for walking into a strange lady's shop like that just because I was hungry, but I do impulsive stuff sometimes. Plus, you've never smelled Aunty Em's burgers. The aroma was like laughing gas in the dentist's chair-it made everything else go away. I barely noticed Grover's nervous whimpers, or the way the statues' eyes seemed to follow me, or the fact that Aunty Em had locked the door behind us.**

If it were possible, Athena and Poseidona and Sally paled even more.

**All I cared about was finding the dining area. And sure enough, there it was at the back of the warehouse, a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.**

**"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said.**

**"Awesome," I said.**

**"Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am."**

**Before I could jab him in the ribs, Aunty Em said, "No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."**

"Go, go, go, go, go" Poseidon, Athena and Sally were all saying.

**"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said.**

**Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done something wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly, so I figured it must've been my imagination.**

"Gods I wish it was" Poseidon said.

**"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said. "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child." Only later did I wonder how she knew Annabeth's name, even though we had never introduced ourselves.**

**Our hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking. Before we knew it, she'd brought us plastic trays heaped with double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL servings of French fries.**

"I'm hungry" Apollo and Hermes said.

**I was halfway through my burger before I remembered to breathe.**

**Annabeth slurped her shake.**

**Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.**

**"What's that hissing noise?" he asked.**

**I listened, but didn't hear anything. Annabeth shook her head.**

**"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."**

**"I take vitamins. For my ears."**

"You do?" Leo asked and Grover pulled out a bottle of vitamins that were in the shape of ears.

**"That's admirable," she said. "But please, relax."**

**Aunty Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her headdress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched us eat. It was a little unsettling, having someone stare at me when I couldn't see her face, but I was feeling satisfied after the burger, and a little sleepy, and I figured the least I could do was try to make small talk with our hostess.**

**"So, you sell gnomes," I said, trying to sound interested.**

**"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."**

"Yeah" Nico said "in the Underworld."

**"A lot of business on this road?"**

**"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built… most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."**

"That's TOTALLY how you cherish customers...you turn them to stone. Let me write that down so I can remember it later" Hermes said sarcastically.

**My neck tingled, as if somebody else was looking at me. I turned, but it was just a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket. The detail was incredible, much better than you see in most garden statues. But something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.**

**"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."**

**"You make these statues yourself?" I asked.**

**"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company." The sadness in her voice sounded so deep and so real that I couldn't help feeling sorry for her.**

**Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said, "Two sisters?"**

"FINALLY!" Poseidon and Athena yelled at the same time.

**"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for children, really. You see, Annabeth, a bad woman was jealous of me,  
**

"I wasn't jealous" Athena said blushing.

"Athena why are you blushing?" Percy asked.

"Like I have to explain myself to you Jackson" Athena said.

"Getting better...she's not calling you Sea Spawn" Annabeth whispered.

"Yeah" Percy said.

**long ago, when I was young. I had a… a boyfriend,**

"Not boyfriend" Poseidon said "a boy you tricked into being your boyfriend."

**you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."**

**I wasn't sure what she meant, but I felt bad for her. My eyelids kept getting heavier, my full stomach making me sleepy. Poor old lady. Who would want to hurt somebody so nice?**

"Seaweed Brain" Annabeth said.

"Uh...Annabeth? You were enchanted too" Grover said.

"Touche" Annabeth said.

**"Percy?" Annabeth was shaking me to get my attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting."**

**She sounded tense. I wasn't sure why. Grover was eating the waxed paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything.**

**"Such beautiful gray eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those."**

**She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly.**

**"We really should go."**

"Yes! Go!" Poseidon and Athena said.

**"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"**

**I didn't want to leave. I felt full and content. Aunty Em was so nice. I wanted to stay with her a while.**

"Seaweed Brain" Annabeth said.

**"Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"**

**"A pose?" Annabeth asked warily.**

"NO!" Poseidon and Athena yelled.

**"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."**

**Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy-"**

**"Sure we can," I said. I was irritated with Annabeth for being so bossy, so rude to an old lady who'd just fed us for free. "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"**

"Well..." Thalia started.

"Shut it" Percy said.

**"Yes, Annabeth," the woman purred. "No harm."**

**I could tell Annabeth didn't like it, but she allowed Aunty Em to lead us back out the front door, into the garden of statues.**

**Aunty Em directed us to a park bench next to the stone satyr. "Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. The young girl in the middle, I think, and the two young gentlemen on either side."**

**"Not much light for a photo," I remarked.**

"I think that's when I noticed something weird" Percy said.

"You're slow" Thalia said.

**"Oh, enough," Aunty Em said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"**

**"Where's your camera?" Grover asked.**

**Aunty Em stepped back, as if to admire the shot. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"**

**Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled, "That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."**

**"Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear."**

**She still had no camera in her hands.**

**"Percy-" Annabeth said.**

**Some instinct warned me to listen to Annabeth, but I was fighting the sleepy feeling, the comfortable lull that came from the food and the old lady's voice.**

"Boys" Artemis scoffed.

**"I will just be a moment," Aunty Em said. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil…."**

**"Percy, something's wrong," Annabeth insisted.**

**"Wrong?" Aunty Em said, reaching up to undo the wrap around her head. "Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?"**

**"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.**

"That's when I knew" Grover said.

**"Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted. She whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed Grover and me both off the bench.**

"Thank you Annabeth" Poseidon said.

**I was on the ground, looking at Aunt Em's sandaled feet.**

**I could hear Grover scrambling off in one direction, Annabeth in another. But I was too dazed to move.**

"Move please" Sally said.

**Then I heard a strange, rasping sound above me. My eyes rose to Aunty Em's hands, which had turned gnarled and warty, with sharp bronze talons for fingernails.**

**I almost looked higher, but somewhere off to my left Annabeth screamed, "No! Don't!"**

"I am so grateful for your daughter right now Athena" Poseidon said.

**More rasping-the sound of tiny snakes, right above me, from … from about where Aunty Em's head would be.**

**"Run!" Grover bleated. I heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, "Maia!" to kick-start his flying sneakers.**

"Maia" Hermes said as his shoes started to raise him off his throne

**I couldn't move. I stared at Aunty Em's gnarled claws, and tried to fight the groggy trance the old woman had put me in.**

"I'm gonna kill her" Poseidon said.

**"Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face," she told me soothingly. "Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up."**

**I fought the urge to obey. Instead I looked to one side and saw one of those glass spheres people put in gardens- a gazing ball. I could see Aunty Em's dark reflection in the orange glass; her headdress was gone, revealing her face as a shimmering pale circle. Her hair was moving, writhing like serpents.**

**Aunty Em.**

**Aunty "M."**

**How could I have been so stupid?**

Percy glared at his two cousins, daring them to say something, who both shut their mouths.

**Think, I told myself. How did Medusa die in the myth?**

"Killed by your namesake" Sally said.

**But I couldn't think. Something told me that in the myth Medusa had been asleep when she was attacked by my namesake, Perseus. She wasn't anywhere near asleep now. If she wanted, she could take those talons right now and rake open my face.**

Poseidon paled again and looked liked the stones used to build his kingdom under the sea.

**"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Percy," Medusa said, and she didn't sound anything like a monster. Her voice invited me to look up, to sympathize with a poor old grandmother. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."**

"Hmph "Athena said.

"Theres a good reason I didn't like her" Poseidon said.

"Why is that?" Athena asked.

"I liked someone else" Poseidon said.

"Who?" Aphrodite asked.

Silence.

**"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth's voice shouted, somewhere in the statuary. "Run, Percy!"**

**"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated back to a comforting purr. "You see why I must destroy the girl, Percy. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, you need not suffer."**

**"No," I muttered. I tried to make my legs move.**

**"Do you really want to help the gods?" Medusa asked. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Percy? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain."**

**"Percy!" Behind me, I heard a buzzing sound, like a two-hundred-pound hummingbird in a nosedive. Grover yelled, "Duck!"**

"No satyr" Travis said.

**I turned, and there he was in the night sky, flying in from twelve o'clock with his winged shoes fluttering, Grover, holding a tree branch the size of a baseball bat. His eyes were shut tight, his head twitched from side to side. He was navigating by ears and nose alone.**

**"Duck!" he yelled again. "I'll get her!"**

**That finally jolted me into action. Knowing Grover, I was sure he'd miss Medusa and nail me. I dove to one side.**

"Thanks" Grover said.

"Sorry."

**Thwack!**

**At first I figured it was the sound of Grover hitting a tree. Then Medusa roared with rage.**

**"You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!"**

**"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.**

"Go Grover!" Thalia, Percy, Nico, Apollo, Hermes, and Clarisse yelled

**I scrambled away and hid in the statuary while Grover swooped down for another pass.**

**Ker-whack!**

**"Arrgh!" Medusa yelled, her snake-hair hissing and spitting.**

**Right next to me, Annabeth's voice said, "Percy!"**

**I jumped so high my feet nearly cleared a garden gnome. "Jeez! Don't do that!"**

"I hate it when you do that" Percy said.

"Sorry" Annabeth said and leaned into him.

**Annabeth took off her Yankees cap and became visible. 'You have to cut her head off."**

**"What? Are you crazy? Let's get out of here."**

**"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but…" Annabeth swallowed, as if she were about to make a difficult admission. "But you've got the better weapon. Besides, I'd never get close to her. She'd slice me to bits because of my mother. You-you've got a chance."**

**"What? I can't-"**

**"Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?"**

**She pointed to a pair of statue lovers, a man and a woman with their arms around each other, turned to stone by the monster.**

"Figure you would point to that statue" Nico said.

"I wasn't giving him hints" Annabeth blushed.

"I said nothing about hints" Nico replied.

Annabeth cursed.

**Annabeth grabbed a green gazing ball from a nearby pedestal. "A polished shield would be better." She studied the sphere critically. "The convexity will cause some distortion. The reflection's size should be off by a factor of-"**

**"Would you speak English?"**

**"I am!" **

"Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiight" Travis said.

**She tossed me the glass ball. "Just look at her in the glass. Never look at her directly."**

**"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above us. "I think she's unconscious!"**

**"Roooaaarrr!"**

**"Maybe not," Grover corrected. He went in for another pass with the tree branch.**

**"Hurry," Annabeth told me. "Grover's got a great nose, but he'll eventually crash."**

**I took out my pen and uncapped it. The bronze blade of Riptide elongated in my hand.**

**I followed the hissing and spitting sounds of Medusa's hair.**

**I kept my eyes locked on the gazing ball so I would only glimpse Medusa's reflection, not the real thing. Then, in the green tinted glass, I saw her.**

**Grover was coming in for another turn at bat, but this time he flew a little too low. Medusa grabbed the stick and pulled him off course. He tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful "Ummphh!"**

"Ouch" people said.

**Medusa was about to lunge at him when I yelled, "Hey!"**

**I advanced on her, which wasn't easy, holding a sword and a glass ball. If she charged, I'd have a hard time defending myself.**

**But she let me approach-twenty feet, ten feet.**

**I could see the reflection of her face now. Surely it wasn't really that ugly. The green swirls of the gazing ball must be distorting it, making it look worse.**

"You have quite an imagination" Zeus said.

**"You wouldn't harm an old woman, Percy," she crooned. "I know you wouldn't."**

**I hesitated, fascinated by the face I saw reflected in the glass-the eyes that seemed to burn straight through the green tint, making my arms go weak.**

**From the cement grizzly, Grover moaned, "Percy, don't listen to her!"**

**Medusa cackled. "Too late."**

**She lunged at me with her talons.**

**I slashed up with my sword, heard a sickening shlock!, then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern-the sound of a monster disintegrating.**

"YES!" Poseidon and Athena yelled.

**Something fell to the ground next to my foot. It took all my willpower not to look. I could feel warm ooze soaking into my sock, little dying snake heads tugging at my shoelaces.**

"Impressive" Jason said.

**"Oh, yuck," Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed, but I guess he could hear the thing gurgling and steaming. "Mega-yuck."**

**Annabeth came up next to me, her eyes fixed on the sky. She was holding Medusa's black veil. She said, "Don't move."**

**Very, very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster's head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green juice.**

**"Are you okay?" she asked me, her voice trembling.**

**"Yeah," I decided, though I felt like throwing up my double cheeseburger. "Why didn't … why didn't the head evaporate?"**

**"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," she said. "Same as your minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."**

**Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a big welt on his forehead. His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves. The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.**

**"The Red Baron," I said. "Good job, man."**

**He managed a bashful grin. "That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun."**

**He snatched his shoes out of the air. I recapped my sword. Together, the three of us stumbled back to the warehouse.**

**We found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head. We plopped it on the table where we'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.**

**Finally I said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"**

"Excuse me?" Athena asked.

"Sorry" Percy said.

**Annabeth flashed me an irritated look. "Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."**

"Sorry" Poseidon told Athena.

**My face was burning. "Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa."**

**Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of my voice, she said: "'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'"**

"Can I hear you imitation?" Nico asked.

Before Annabeth could respon Percy said "no."

**"Forget it," I said. "You're impossible."**

**"You're insufferable."**

**"You're-"**

"You guys are fighting like Zeus and Hera!" Aphrodite squeled.

Zeus and Hera and Percy and Annabeth blushed.

**"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even get migraines. What are we going to do with the head?"**

**I stared at the thing. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic. The words printed on the side of the bag said: WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!**

**I was angry, not just with Annabeth or her mom, but with all the gods for this whole quest, for getting us blown off the road and in two major fights the very first day out from camp. At this rate, we'd never make it to L.A. alive, much less before the summer solstice.**

**What had Medusa said?**

**Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue.**

**I got up. "I'll be back."**

**"Percy," Annabeth called after me. "What are you-"**

**I searched the back of the warehouse until I found Medusa's office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone's garden. According to one freight bill, the Underworld's billing address was DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. I folded up the bill and stuffed it in my pocket.**

"Smart move" Athena said.

**In the cash register I found twenty dollars, a few golden drachmas, and some packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express, each with a little leather bag attached for coins. I rummaged around the rest of the office until I found the right-size box.**

**I went back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip:**

**The Gods**

**Mount Olympus**

**600th Floor,**

**Empire State Building**

**New York, NY**

**With best wishes,**

**PERCY JACKSON**

"WHAT?!" the gods yelled.

"Are you trying to get yourself sent to Hades the hard way?" Jason asked.

**"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."**

"I am" Percy said.

**I poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as I closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!**

**"I am impertinent," I said.**

**I looked at Annabeth, daring her to criticize.**

**She didn't. She seemed resigned to the fact that I had a major talent for ticking off the gods. "Come on," she muttered. "We need a new plan."**

"Done" Zeus said still storming over Percy's little package as a tornado swept through Kansas "Who will read next?"

"I will father" Artemis said.

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**hows that for pothena?**

**please review and check out my poll! once this poll is done i will post another on how aphrodite should go about gettting poseidon and athena together...hows that sound?:) **

**EVERYONE! JUST FOUND OUT THE NEXT PJO MOVIE IS IN PRODUCTION! IT'S RELEASE DATE IS 27 MARCH, 2013! LOGAN LERMAN WILL BE BACK AS OUR BELOVED PERCY JACKSON! (they could recast Annabeth though) cross our fingers this is absolutely true!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	16. We Get Advice From a Poodle

**okay this chapter is dedicated to multiple people...**

**First to Percabeth 9948 for being the 125th reviewer! *applause***

**Next to Percabethlvrknowsall, ReadingLuver, and kiskaduna for adding this story to their communtities! *more applause***

**Now, there were 3 people who have all reviewed this story 7 times each and no one else has reviewed that much! They are *drumroll* ****briekat000! *applause* Just Letting Go! *applause* and paradiseisland101! *applause***

**thank you for sticking with this story:) heres the next chapter...the pothena hook up might not happen till the next book! sorry but i need time to add the results from my current poll to my story (the big 3 fight) and i need more ideas for pothena...i have one or two (i can't remeber) and i need more!**

**ok the next chapter will be dedicated to the 145th reviewer! good luck:)**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

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**"We get advice from a poodle," **Artemis read

"I don't like poodles" Aphrodite said "I like Yorkies."

**We were pretty miserable that night.**

"But you were with Annabeth!" the Stolls said.

"Shut up" Percy and Annabeth said blushing.

**We camped out in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.**

Grover and Katie glared.

**We'd taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but we didn't dare light a fire to dry our damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. We didn't want to attract anything else.**

"Smart" Athena said.

"My idea" Annabeth said.

"Course it was" Athena said.

**We decided to sleep in shifts. I volunteered to take first watch.**

**Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground.**

"I do not snore!" Annabeth said.

"Yeah you do" Percy and Nico said.

"How would you know?" Thalia asked Nico who blushed a little.

"When we were in the Labyrinth I got bored and ended watching Percy, Annabeth and Rachel sleep. Percy talks in his sleep, Annabeth snores, and Rachel tosses and turns a hell of a lot."

Rachel, Percy and Annabeth blushed furiously.

"What were you guys doing in the Labyrinth?" Hades asked.

"Nothing" Annabeth, Nico and Percy said.

Hades began to argue before Artemis started to read.

**Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a t****ree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky.**

**"Go ahead and sleep," I told him. "I'll wake you if there's trouble."**

**He nodded, but still didn't close his eyes. "It makes me sad, Percy."**

**"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?"**

"Not sad about that...I was terrified about that" Grover said.

**"No. This makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage on the ground. "And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. **

"Zoe mentions that when things are quiet. She always loved the stars" Artemis said "especially Pegasus."

Percy and Thalia looked down.

**This is a terrible time to be a satyr."**

**"Oh, yeah. I guess you'd be an environmentalist."**

"Only you Percy" Thalia said shaking her head.

**He glared at me. "Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast … ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan."**

**"Pam? Like the cooking spray?"**

Nico shook his head.

**"Pan!" he cried indignantly. "P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searcher's license for?"**

"Um...let me just point out that I was new at this whole demigod and satyr and Greek Gods thing."

**A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rainwater, things that might've once been in these woods. Suddenly I was nostalgic for something I'd never known.**

Hermes raised an eyebrow.

"Pan sent the breeze" Grover said.

"I know buddy" Percy said.

**"Tell me about the search," I said.**

**Grover looked at me cautiously, as if he were afraid I was just making fun.**

"Why would I do that?" Percy said.

Artemis raised an eyebrow.

**"The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago," he told me. "A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, 'Tell them that the great god Pan has died!' When humans heard the news, they believed it. They've been pillaging Pan's kingdom ever since. But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation, the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden, and wake him from his sleep."**

Grover smiled sadly and proudly.

**"And you want to be a searcher."**

**"It's my life's dream," he said. "My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand … the statue you saw back there-"**

**"Oh, right, sorry."**

Everyone looked down.

**Grover shook his head. "Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So did my dad. But I'll succeed. I'll be the first searcher to return alive."**

**"Hang on-the first?"**

"Yeah" Grover said.

"He came back" Percy said.

"I'm actually Pan's chosen one and I found him" Grover said proudly.

"You did?" Hermes asked.

"Yup, in the Labyrinth" Grover said and Hermes poofed out of the room.

**Grover took his reed pipes out of his pocket. "No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They're never seen alive again."**

**"Not once in two thousand years?"**

**"No."**

**"And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?"**

**"None."**

"That's sad" Hera said.

Grover nodded.

**"But you still want to go," I said, amazed. "I mean, you really think you'll be the one to find Pan?"**

**"I have to believe that, Percy. Every searcher does. It's the only thing that keeps us from despair when we look at what humans have done to the world. I have to believe Pan can still be awakened."**

**I stared at the orange haze of the sky and tried to understand how Grover could pursue a dream that seemed so hopeless. Then again, was I any better?**

**"How are we going to get into the Underworld?" I asked him. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"**

"None" Ares said.

"Wait till you see what God I do beat" Percy said.

**"I don't know," he admitted. "But back at Medusa's, when you were searching her office? Annabeth was telling me-"**

**"Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out."**

"They really did hate each other" Thalia said.

"Then they realized that they loved each other!" Nico said.

"And the result?" Thalia asked.

"That" Nico said pointing to Percy and Annabeth cuddling on the loveseat.

Aphrodite squirmed.

**"Don't be so hard on her, Percy. She's had a tough life, but she's a good person. After all, she forgave me…." His voice faltered.**

**"What do you mean?" I asked. "Forgave you for what?"**

"Here we go" Thalia said.

**Suddenly, Grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.**

"Again my choice!" Thalia said.

**"Wait a minute," I said. "Your first keeper job was five years ago. Annabeth has been at camp five years. She wasn't … I mean, your first assignment that went wrong-"**

**"I can't talk about it," Grover said, and his quivering lower lip suggested he'd start crying if I pressed him. "But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Something isn't what it seems."**

Athena pondered this.

**"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunderbolt that Hades took."**

"He wouldn't take it" Nico said.

**"That's not what I mean," Grover said. "The Fur-The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy … why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."**

"They were plenty aggressive to me" Poseidon said.

**"They seemed plenty aggressive to me."**

"Like father-like-son" Hermes said coming back into the throne room with a dozen letters and 3 packages he started to hand out. Once he was done, and Artemis and Thalia got their new quivers, and seated the reading continued.

**Grover shook his head. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'"**

**"Asking about me," I said.**

"Are you deaf?" Thalia asked "IT! not HE!"

**"Maybe … but Annabeth and I, we both got the feeling they weren't asking about a person. They said 'Where is it?' They seemed to be asking about an object."**

**"That doesn't make sense."**

**"I know. But if we've misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt…." He looked at me like he was hoping for answers, but I didn't have any.**

"Shocker" Clarisse said.

**I thought about what Medusa had said: I was being used by the gods. What lay ahead of me was worse than petrification. "I haven't been straight with you," I told Grover. "I don't care about the master bolt. I agreed to go to the Underworld so I could bring back my mother."**

**Grover blew a soft note on his pipes. "I know that, Percy. But are you sure that's the only reason?"**

**"I'm not doing it to help my father. He doesn't care about me. I don't care about him."**

Poseidon looked down in guilt.

"I do care" he grumbled.

"I know dad" Percy said.

**Grover gazed down from his tree branch. "Look, Percy, I'm not as smart as Annabeth. I'm not as brave as you. But I'm pretty good at reading emotions. You're glad your dad is alive. You feel good that he's claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That's why you mailed Medusa's head to Olympus. You wanted him to notice what you'd done."**

"Maybe a little" Percy said.

**"Yeah? Well maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. Because you're wrong. I don't care what he thinks."**

"Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight" Thalia said.

**Grover pulled his feet up onto the branch. "Okay, Percy. Whatever."**

**"Besides, I haven't done anything worth bragging about. We barely got out of New York and we're stuck here with no money and no way west."**

**Grover looked at the night sky, like he was thinking about that problem. "How about I take first watch, huh? You get some sleep."**

**I wanted to protest, but he started to play Mozart, soft and sweet, and I turned away, my eyes stinging. After a few bars of Piano Concerto no. 12, I was asleep.**

**In my dreams,**

"Here we go again" Percy said.

**I stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit. Gray mist creatures churned all around me, whispering rags of smoke that I somehow knew were the spirits of the dead.**

**They tugged at my clothes, trying to pull me back, but I felt compelled to walk forward to the very edge of the chasm.**

"Is it Tarturas?" Athena asked and Percy nodded.

**Looking down made me dizzy.**

**The pit yawned so wide and was so completely black, I knew it must be bottomless. Yet I had a feeling that something was trying to rise from the abyss, something huge and evil.**

"Kronos" a few Gods muttered and Percy glanced at Luke quickly as did Athena and Poseidon, who Annabeth explained the war to.

**The little hero, an amused voice echoed far down in the darkness. Too weak, too young, but perhaps you will do.**

**The voice felt ancient-cold and heavy. It wrapped around me like sheets of lead.**

**They have misled you, boy, it said. Barter with me. I will give you what you want.**

"Don't do it Percy" Sally said.

**A shimmering image hovered over the void: my mother, frozen at the moment she'd dissolved in a shower of gold. Her face was distorted with pain, as if the Minotaur were still squeezing her neck. Her eyes looked directly at me, pleading: Go!**

Paul squeezed Sally's hand.

**I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn't work.**

"It never does in my dreams" Percy said.

**Cold laughter echoed from the chasm.**

**An invisible force pulled me forward. It would drag me into the pit unless I stood firm.**

**Help me rise, boy. The voice became hungrier. Bring me the bolt. Strike a blow against the treacherous gods!**

**The spirits of the dead whispered around me, No! Wake!**

"Yes. Wake!" Poseidons aid.

**The image of my mother began to fade. The thing in the pit tightened its unseen grip around me.**

**I realized it wasn't interested in pulling me in. It was using me to pull itself out.**

**Good, it murmured. Good.**

**Wake! the dead whispered. Wake!**

"Wake up! Wake up!"

**Someone was shaking me.**

"Thank you" Percy said and kissed his girlfriend.

"Any time" Annabeth smiled.

**My eyes opened, and it was daylight.**

**"Well," Annabeth said, "the zombie lives."**

"What's Nico doing there?!" Thalia said.

**I was trembling from the dream. I could still feel the grip of the chasm monster around my chest. "How long was I asleep?"**

**"Long enough for me to cook breakfast." Annabeth tossed me a bag of nacho-flavored corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar.**

"Breakfast of champions!" Apollo said.

Everyone laughed, still in togas.

**"And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend."**

**My eyes had trouble focusing.**

**Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty, unnaturally pink stuffed animal.**

**No. It wasn't a stuffed animal. It was a pink poodle.**

"I've seen a poodle before but never a pink one" Leo said.

Suddenly a pink poodle was int he room.

"Now you have" Aphrodite said and everyone laughed as the poodle jumped into Leo's lap.

"Great" Leo said sarcastically.

**The poodle yapped at me suspiciously. Grover said, "No, he's not."**

**I blinked. "Are you … talking to that thing?"**

**The poodle growled.**

"Feisty" Katie said.

"Like Piper! Beautiful yet feisty!" Leo joked.

**"This thing," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."**

**"You can talk to animals?"**

"No I was reading his mind" Grover said and rolled his eyes.

**I stared at Annabeth, figuring she'd crack up at this practical joke they were playing on me, but she looked deadly serious.**

**"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," I said. "Forget it."**

"I felt stupid" Percy said.

"You are stupid" Thalia said.

Everyone laughed as Percy pouted.

**"Percy," Annabeth said. "I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle"**

**The poodle growled.**

**I said hello to the poodle.**

**Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.**

"Someone made a friend" Aphrodite said.

**"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" I asked.**

**"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."**

"Yeah...duh!" Thalia said.

Everyone laughed.

**"Of course," I said. "Silly me."**

Everyone laughed again.

**"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice,**

"Acting all smart and stuff" Travis said.

"I am all smart and stuff" Annabeth said.

"Touche" Travis replied.

**"we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."**

**I thought about my dream-the whispering voices of the dead, the thing in the chasm, and my mother's face, shimmering as it dissolved into gold. All that might be waiting for me in the West.**

"And they say I'm the pessimist" Nico said.

**"Not another bus," I said warily.**

Everyone laughed.

**"No," Annabeth agreed.**

**She pointed downhill, toward train tracks I hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the westbound train leaves at noon."**

"Don't destroy the train" Hermes said.

"Done" Artemis said "Who will read next?"

Hermes raised his hand and Artemis passed the book to him.

He cleared his throat and began to read the next chapter in Percy Jackson's first year of being a demigod.

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**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	17. I Plunge To My Death

**this chapter is dedicated to Rick Riodran without whom PJO would never had been! *wild applause from everyone and a standing ovation as Rick waves shyly from his seat in the front row***

**btw i am not a parent so i am not Rick roidran so i don't own PJO**

**please review**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

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**"I plunge to my death." **Hermes read.

"Great" Poseidon and Sally said.

**We spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain.**

"For purple mountains majesty, above the fruited plain! AMERICA! AMERICA! Gods shed their grace on thee! And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea!" Apollo and Hermes sang.

"What was that?" Athena asked.

"Percy said amber waves of grain and the song 'America the Beautiful' goes...and amber waves of grain, for purple mountains majesty... so we finished the song for him!" Apollo said.

"Stupid" Artemis said.

**We weren't attacked once, but I didn't relax. I felt that we were traveling around in a display case, being watched from above and maybe from below, that something was waiting for the right opportunity.**

**I tried to keep a low profile because my name and picture were splattered over the front pages of several East Coast newspapers.**

"Don't have much luck do you?" Luke asked.

"Nope" Percy joked.

"I have a question" Sally said.

"Yes?" Zeus asked.

"Are we going to be here through Christmas?" she asked.

"I would imagine so" Athena replied.

"How are we supposed to celebrate?" Paul asked.

"How about tomorrow we put up a Christmas tree and a few decorations in the Olympian living room and we'll continue reading the book in there?" Athena asked.

All the mortals nodded.

"An Olympian Christams...interesting" Poseidon said.

**The Trenton Register-News showed a photo taken by a tourist as I got off the Greyhound bus. I had a wild look in my eyes. My sword was a metallic blur in my hands. It might've been a baseball bat or a lacrosse stick.**

**The picture's caption read:**

**Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson, wanted for questioning in the Long Island disappearance of his mother two weeks ago, is shown here fleeing from the bus where he accosted several elderly female passengers. The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly after Jackson fled the scene. Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the boy may be traveling with two teenage accomplices. His stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture.**

"Hate him" everyone murmered.

**"Don't worry," Annabeth told me. "Mortal police could never find us." But she didn't sound so sure.**

**The rest of the day I spent alternately pacing the length of the train (because I had a really hard time sitting still) or looking out the windows.**

Tha demigods nodded.

**Once, I spotted a family of centaurs galloping across a wheat field, bows at the ready, as they hunted lunch.**

"Cool!" Hermes said.

**The little boy centaur, who was the size of a second-grader on a pony, caught my eye and waved. I looked around the passenger car, but nobody else had noticed. The adult riders all had their faces buried in laptop computers or magazines.**

**Another time, toward evening, I saw something huge moving through the woods. I could've sworn it was a lion, except that lions don't live wild in America, and this thing was the size of a Hummer. Its fur glinted gold in the evening light. Then it leaped through the trees and was gone.**

"You saw it before we got attacked by it?" Thalia asked.

"What the Hades are you talking about" Annabeth said.

"Nothing" Percy said.

**Our reward money for returning Gladiola the poodle had only been enough to purchase tickets as far as Denver. We couldn't get berths in the sleeper car, so we dozed in our seats. My neck got stiff. I tried not to drool in my sleep, since Annabeth was sitting right next to me.**

"You still drooled" Annabeth said "And you talked in your sleep."

"Well you snored" Percy said.

"Did not!" Annabeth said.

Everyone laughed.

**Grover kept snoring and bleating and waking me up. Once, he shuffled around and his fake foot fell off. Annabeth and I had to stick it back on before any of the other passengers noticed.**

"Oops" Grover said.

**"So," Annabeth asked me, once we'd gotten Grover's sneaker readjusted. "Who wants your help?"**

**"What do you mean?"**

**"When you were asleep just now, you mumbled, 'I won't help you.' Who were you dreaming about?"**

**I was reluctant to say anything. It was the second time I'd dreamed about the evil voice from the pit. But it bothered me so much I finally told her.**

**Annabeth was quiet for a long time. "That doesn't sound like Hades. He always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs."**

"I laugh!" Hades argued.

"No you don't" his brothers said.

"You barely smile" Persephone said.

Hades humphed and everyone laughed.

**"He offered my mother in trade. Who else could do that?"**

**"I guess … if he meant, 'Help me rise from the Underworld.' If he wants war with the Olympians. But why ask you to bring him the master bolt if he already has it?"**

**I shook my head, wishing I knew the answer. I thought about what Grover had told me, that the Furies on the bus seemed to have been looking for something.**

**Where is it? Where?**

"Again...dramatic!" Thalia said.

**Maybe Grover sensed my emotions. He snorted in his sleep, muttered something about vegetables, and turned his head.**

Everyone laughed.

**Annabeth readjusted his cap so it covered his horns. "Percy, you can't barter with Hades. You know that, right? He's deceitful, heartless, and greedy. I don't care if his Kindly Ones weren't as aggressive this time-"**

"HEY!" Nico and Hades yelled.

"Sorry" Annaebth said avoiding the looks she was getting.

**"This time?" I asked. "You mean you've run into them before?"**

**Her hand crept up to her necklace. She fingered a glazed white bead painted with the image of a pine tree, one of her clay end-of-summer tokens. "Let's just say I've got no love for the Lord of the Dead. You can't be tempted to make a deal for your mom."**

**"What would you do if it was your dad?"**

**"That's easy," she said. "I'd leave him to rot."**

"Wow! Harsh" Hermes said.

"I don't feel that way anymore...because of Percy here" Annabeth said.

Everyone looked confused.

"You'll see" Annaebth said.

**"You're not serious?"**

**Annabeth's gray eyes fixed on me. She wore the same expression she'd worn in the woods at camp, the moment she drew her sword against the hellhound. "My dad's resented me since the day I was born, Percy," she said. "He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise me on Olympus because he was too busy with his work. She wasn't happy about that. She told him heroes had to be raised by their mortal parent."**

"I remeber that" Athena said sadly.

Percy hugged his girlfriend closer.

**"But how … I mean, I guess you weren't born in a hospital…."**

"Nope" Athena said.

**"I appeared on my father's doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind.**

"Sounds like a miracle!" Hera said.

"Makes her sound important" Travis said.

"She is important" Percy said.

**You'd think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right? Like, maybe he'd take some digital photos or something. But he always talked about my arrival as if it were the most inconvenient thing that had ever happened to him. When I was five he got married and totally forgot about Athena. He got a 'regular' mortal wife, and had two 'regular' mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn't exist."**

"Hmph" Hera said.

**I stared out the train window. The lights of a sleeping town were drifting by. I wanted to make Annabeth feel better, but I didn't know how.**

"Awwwwwwwwww" Aphrodite cooed and Percy blushed.

**"My mom married a really awful guy," I told her. "Grover said she did it to protect me, to hide me in the scent of a human family. Maybe that's what your dad was thinking."**

"Did it help at least?" Percy asked.

"A little" Ananebth said.

"I was trying" Percy said.

"I know" Annabeth replied.

"Love you" Percy said.

"Love you too" Annabeth said and the couple kissed with Aphrodite squirming in her seat.

**Annabeth kept worrying at her necklace. She was pinching the gold college ring that hung with the beads. It occurred to me that the ring must be her father's. I wondered why she wore it if she hated him so much.**

**"He doesn't care about me," she said. "His wife-my stepmom-treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children. My dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened-you know, something with monsters-they would both look at me resentfully, like, 'How dare you put our family at risk.' Finally, I took the hint. I wasn't wanted. I ran away."**

"2 of the best years of my life...on the run" Annaebth said and Thalia and Luke smiled.

"What about me?" Percy asked.

"Next to the year me and you started dating" Ananebth said.

**"How old were you?"**

**"Same age as when I started camp. Seven."**

"Young" Athena said.

**"But … you couldn't have gotten all the way to Half-Blood Hill by yourself."**

**"Not alone, no. Athena watched over me, guided me toward help. I made a couple of unexpected friends who took care of me, for a short time, anyway."**

Thalia and Luke smiled at her and she returned it.

**I wanted to ask what happened, but Annabeth seemed lost in sad memories. So I listened to the sound of Grover snoring and gazed out the train windows as the dark fields of Ohio raced by. (A/N: Woooooooo! Ohio! Go Bucks!)**

**Toward the end of our second day on the train, June 13, eight days before the summer solstice, we passed through some golden hills and over the Mississippi River into St. Louis. Annabeth craned her neck to see the Gateway Arch, which looked to me like a huge shopping bag handle stuck on the city.**

"Wow" Ananebth said "Only you Percy."

**"I want to do that," she sighed.**

**"What?" I asked.**

**"Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon, Percy?"**

**"Only in pictures."**

**"Someday, I'm going to see it in person. I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that'll last a thousand years."**

**I laughed. "You? An architect?"**

"What's that supposed to mean?" Annabeth asked dangerously and sat up so she wasn't cuddling with Percy.

"Uhhhhhhh" Percy said and Hermes began to read.

**I don't know why, but I found it funny. Just the idea of Annabeth trying to sit quietly and draw all day.**

"Oh" Annaebth said and leaned back into her spot.

"You're an amazing architect" Percy said and the future Greek demigods nodded.

**Her cheeks flushed. "Yes, an architect. Athena expects her children to create things, not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes I could mention."**

"Harsh" Percy said.

"Sorry" Ananebth said.

**I watched the churning brown water of the Mississippi below.**

**"Sorry," Annabeth said. "That was mean."**

**"Can't we work together a little?" I pleaded. "I mean, didn't Athena and Poseidon ever cooperate?"**

"I don't think so..." Athena said looking at Poseidon who was looking at her.

_"Such pretty eyes"_ Poseidon thought.

**Annabeth had to think about it. "I guess … the chariot," she said tentatively. "My mom invented it, but Poseidon created horses out of the crests of waves. So they had to work together to make it complete."**

"I never thought about it that way" Athena said.

"So it's possible we could be friends!" Poseidon said.

"Yeah...I suppose" Athena said because Poseidon was looking at her with those big puppy dog, sea green eyes.

_"Like looking at the bottom of the ocean"_ Athena thought when she looked at him straight in the eyes...she sighed.

**"Then we can cooperate, too. Right?" **

**We rode into the city, Annabeth watching as the Arch disappeared behind a hotel.**

**"I suppose," she said at last.**

"Theres the start of a brand new era" Nico said and gestured to Percy and Annabeth.

**We pulled into the Amtrak station downtown. The intercom told us we'd have a three-hour layover before departing for Denver.**

**Grover stretched. Before he was even fully awake, he said, "Food."**

"Only you Goat Boy"Thalia said.

**"Come on, goat boy," Annabeth said. "Sightseeing."**

**"Sightseeing?"**

**"The Gateway Arch," she said. "This may be my only chance to ride to the top. Are you coming or not?"**

**Grover and I exchanged looks.**

**I wanted to say no, but I figured that if Annabeth was going, we couldn't very well let her go alone.**

"Such nice friends" Hestia said.

**Grover shrugged. "As long as there's a snack bar without monsters."**

"That would be nice" Poseidon said and Athena agreed with him.

**The Arch was about a mile from the train station. Late in the day the lines to get in weren't that long. We threaded our way through the underground museum, looking at covered wagons and other junk from the 1800s. It wasn't all that thrilling, but Annabeth kept telling us interesting facts about how the Arch was built, and Grover kept passing me jelly beans, so I was okay.**

Nico laughed and shook his head.

"Did you listen at all?" Annabeth asked.

"Uhhhh..." Grover and Percy said "Yes?"

Annaebth humphed.

**I kept looking around, though, at the other people in line. "You smell anything?" I murmured to Grover.**

**He took his nose out of the jelly-bean bag long enough to sniff. **

Everyone laughed.

**"Underground," he said distastefully. "Underground air always smells like monsters. Probably doesn't mean anything."**

**But something felt wrong to me. I had a feeling we shouldn't be here.**

"Oh no" Poseidon said.

**"Guys," I said. "You know the gods' symbols of power?"**

**Annabeth had been in the middle of reading about the construction equipment used to build the Arch, but she looked over. "Yeah?"**

"I was wondering where you were going with this.

**"Well, Hade-"**

**Grover cleared his throat. "We're in a public place…. You mean, our friend downstairs?"**

"Friend?" Zeus asked.

"I should've said enemy or jerk" Grover said.

Hades humphed and everyone laughed.

**"Um, right," I said. "Our friend way downstairs. Doesn't he have a hat like Annabeth's?"**

"I do but it's much stronger than her petty hat" Hades said.

**"You mean the Helm of Darkness," Annabeth said. "Yeah, that's his symbol of power. I saw it next to his seat during the winter solstice council meeting."**

**"He was there?" I asked.**

**She nodded. "It's the only time he's allowed to visit Olympus-the darkest day of the year. But his helm is a lot more powerful than my invisibility hat, if what I've heard is true…."**

"**"It allows him to become darkness," Grover confirmed. "He can melt into shadow or pass through walls. He can't be touched, or seen, or heard. And he can radiate fear so intense it can drive you insane or stop your heart. Why do you think all rational creatures fear the dark?"**

"Cool!" Leo and the Stolls said.

**"But then … how do we know he's not here right now, watching us?" I asked.**

"Talk about creepy" Nico said.

**Annabeth and Grover exchanged looks.**

**"We don't," Grover said.**

**"Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better," I said. "Got any blue jelly beans left?"**

"Wow, just wow" Thalia said shaking her head and everyone else laughed.

**I'd almost mastered my jumpy nerves when I saw the tiny little elevator car we were going to ride to the top of the Arch, and I knew I was in trouble. I hate confined places. They make me nuts**

'Same here' and 'me too' was heard from all the demigods.

**We got shoehorned into the car with this big fat lady and her dog, a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar. I figured maybe the dog was a seeing-eye Chihuahua, because none of the guards said a word about it.**

"First clue" Percy murmered.

"Must be and important lady" Apollo said.

**We started going up, inside the Arch. I'd never been in an elevator that went in a curve, and my stomach wasn't too happy about it.**

"Makes me quezy just tinking about it" Poseidon said.

**"No parents?" the fat lady asked us.**

**She had beady eyes; pointy, coffee-stained teeth; a floppy denim hat, and a denim dress that bulged so much, she looked like a blue-jean blimp.**

Everyone pictured that...

...and laughed.

**"They're below," Annabeth told her. "Scared of heights."**

"You are a much better liar than Grover!" Herems nodded.

"That's why I do all the lying on our quests" Annabeth replied.

**"Oh, the poor darlings."**

**The Chihuahua growled. The woman said, "Now, now, sonny. Behave." The dog had beady eyes like its owner, intelligent and vicious.**

**I said, "Sonny. Is that his name?"**

**"No," the lady told me.**

**She smiled, as if that cleared everything up.**

"Theres clue number two" Percy said.

"Sonny as in like the _son _of Poseidon and not like Apollo, god of the _sun_?" Athena asked.

"Yeah..."Percy said.

**At the top of the Arch, the observation deck reminded me of a tin can with carpeting. Rows of tiny windows looked out over the city on one side and the river on the other. The view was okay, but if there's anything I like less than a confined space, it's a confined space six hundred feet in the air. I was ready to go pretty quick.**

"I would be too" Poseidon said.

Thalia cringed at the thought of heights.

**Annabeth kept talking about structural supports, and how she would've made the windows bigger, and designed a see-through floor. She probably could've stayed up there for hours, but luckily for me the park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes.**

"Yeah Lucky" Thalia said.

**I steered Grover and Annabeth toward the exit, loaded them into the elevator, and I was about to get in myself when I realized there were already two other tourists inside. No room for me.**

**The park ranger said, "Next car, sir."**

**"We'll get out," Annabeth said. "We'll wait with you."**

"Should've let you wait with me" Percy said.

**But that was going to mess everybody up and take even more time, so I said, "Naw, it's okay. I'll see you guys at the bottom."**

**Grover and Annabeth both looked nervous, but they let the elevator door slide shut. Their car disappeared down the ramp.**

"Not the brightest idea" Thalia commented.

**Now the only people left on the observation deck were me, a little boy with his parents, the park ranger, and the fat lady with her Chihuahua.**

**I smiled uneasily at the fat lady. She smiled back, her forked tongue flickering between her teeth.**

"And clue three!" PErcy said.

**Wait a minute.**

**Forked tongue?**

"Monster?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah...the worst" Percy said and Poseidon and Sally paled.

**Before I could decide if I'd really seen that, her Chihuahua jumped down and started yapping at me.**

**"Now, now, sonny," the lady said. "Does this look like a good time? We have all these nice people here."**

**"Doggie!" said the little boy. "Look, a doggie!"**

**His parents pulled him back.**

"Parental instincts" Hera said "a gift from me."

**The Chihuahua bared his teeth at me, foam dripping from his black lips.**

**"Well, son," the fat lady sighed. "If you insist."**

**Ice started forming in my stomach. "Urn, did you just call that Chihuahua your son?"**

**"Chimera, dear," the fat lady corrected. "Not a Chihuahua. It's an easy mistake to make."**

"Chimera?" Poseidon squeked.

"He'll get out alive" Sally said trying to comfort Poseidon and herself.

**She rolled up her denim sleeves, revealing that the skin of her arms was scaly and green. When she smiled, I saw that her teeth were fangs. The pupils of her eyes were sideways slits, like a reptile's.**

"Who is she?!" Nico asked.

**The Chihuahua barked louder, and with each bark, it grew. First to the size of a Doberman, then to a lion. The bark became a roar.**

**The little boy screamed. His parents pulled him back toward the exit, straight into the park ranger, who stood, paralyzed, gaping at the monster.**

"I think the boy can see through the Mist" Hermes said.

**The Chimera was now so tall its back rubbed against the roof. It had the head of a lion with a blood-caked mane, the body and hooves of a giant goat, and a serpent for a tail, a ten-foot-long diamondback growing right out of its shaggy behind. The rhinestone dog collar still hung around its neck, and the plate-sized dog tag was now easy to read: CHIMERA-RABID, FIRE-BREATHING, POISONOUS-IF FOUND, PLEASE CALL TARTARUS-EXT. 954.**

"Why were you reading that?" Rachel asked.

"ADHD" Percy said.

"Dad?" Connor asked Hermes.

"Yes son?" Hermes replied.

"What happens if you prank call Tartarus?" Travis asked.

"Bad things "Hermes said and the brothers decided not to prank call them.

**I realized I hadn't even uncapped my sword. My hands were numb. I was ten feet away from the Chimera's bloody maw, and I knew that as soon as I moved, the creature would lunge.**

**The snake lady made a hissing noise that might've been laughter. "Be honored, Percy Jackson. Lord Zeus rarely allows me to test a hero with one of my brood. For I am the Mother of Monsters, the terrible Echidna!"**

Poseidon paled even more and Sally was shaking her head.

Annabeth was leaning into Percy for reassurance...knowing that he was there.

"I know what you meant when you said the worst monster" Nico said.

**I stared at her. All I could think to say was: "Isn't that a kind of anteater?"**

"Great job Percy" Thalia said "you just made the mother of monsters mad."

**She howled, her reptilian face turning brown and green with rage. "I hate it when people say that! I hate Australia! Naming that ridiculous animal after me. For that, Percy Jackson, my son shall destroy you!"**

Poseidon had his eyes closed.

**The Chimera charged, its lion teeth gnashing. I managed to leap aside and dodge the bite.**

**I ended up next to the family and the park ranger, who were all screaming now, trying to pry open the emergency exit doors.**

**I couldn't let them get hurt. I uncapped my sword, ran to the other side of the deck, and yelled, "Hey, Chihuahua!" The Chimera turned faster than I would've thought possible.**

"You need better insults when fighting" Ares said.

"He's about to die and that's what you say?!" Hera said and Ares nodded.

**Before I could swing my sword, it opened its mouth, emitting a stench like the world's largest barbecue pit, and shot a column of flame straight at me.**

**I dove through the explosion. The carpet burst into flames; the heat was so intense, it nearly seared off my eyebrows.**

**Where I had been standing a moment before was a ragged hole in the side of the Arch, with melted metal steaming around the edges.**

**Great, I thought. We just blowtorched a national monument.**

"Don't you destroy more?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah..." Percy said.

"Go ahead and ruin perfectly good architecture" Annabeth murmered.

**Riptide was now a shining bronze blade in my hands, and as the Chimera turned, I slashed at its neck.**

**That was my fatal mistake. The blade sparked harmlessly off the dog collar. I tried to regain my balance, but I was so worried about defending myself against the fiery lion's mouth, I completely forgot about the serpent tail until it whipped around and sank its fangs into my calf.**

Poseidon took a breath and held it.

**My whole leg was on fire. I tried to jab Riptide into the Chimera's mouth, but the serpent tail wrapped around my ankles and pulled me off balance, and my blade flew out of my hand, spinning out of the hole in the Arch and down toward the Mississippi River.**

"You're basically screwed now" Jason said.

"I know" Percy said.

**I managed to get to my feet, but I knew I had lost. I was weaponless. I could feel deadly poison racing up to my chest. I remembered Chiron saying that Anaklusmos would always return to me, but there was no pen in my pocket. Maybe it had fallen too far away. Maybe it only returned when it was in pen form. I didn't know, and I wasn't going to live long enough to figure it out.**

**I backed into the hole in the wall. The Chimera advanced, growling, smoke curling from its lips. The snake lady, Echidna, cackled. "They don't make heroes like they used to, eh, son?"**

"She's only talking about Hercules who was the 2cd best hero and a son of Zeus so...she can't compare" Annabeth said.

"Second best?" Zeus asked dangerously.

"Yeah...Percy's the best" Annaebth replied and the future Greek demigods nodded their heads.

"What about Jason?" Hazel asked.

"We don't enough about Jason" Nico replied.

"You'll read about all I did" Percy said blushing.

"I only beat a Titan" Jason scofed.

"I beat Kronos" Percy said.

"Okay you win" Jason admitted.

Every demigod laughed, except Luke, Silena, and Bekendorf.

"Wait! You beat Kronos? Why would you need to do that?" Zeus asked.

Percy stole a glance at Luke.

"It'll explain in the books" Percy said.

**The monster growled. It seemed in no hurry to finish me off now that I was beaten.**

**I glanced at the park ranger and the family. The little boy was hiding behind his father's legs. I had to protect these people. I couldn't just … die. I tried to think, but my whole body was on fire. My head felt dizzy. I had no sword. I was facing a massive, fire-breathing monster and its mother. And I was scared.**

"Who wouldn't be scared?" Thalia asked.

**There was no place else to go, so I stepped to the edge of the hole. Far, far below, the river glittered.**

**If I died, would the monsters go away? Would they leave the humans alone?**

"It should" Athena said.

**"If you are the son of Poseidon," Echidna hissed, "you would not fear water. Jump, Percy Jackson. Show me that water will not harm you. Jump and retrieve your sword. Prove your bloodline."**

Poseidon looked up.

"Yes jump!" he said.

**Yeah, right, I thought. I'd read somewhere that jumping into water from a couple of stories up was like jumping onto solid asphalt. From here, I'd splatter on impact.**

"Not you" Annaebth said and leaned closer, if possible, to Percy.

**The Chimera's mouth glowed red, heating up for another blast.**

**"You have no faith," Echidna told me. "You do not trust the gods. I cannot blame you, little coward. Better you die now. The gods are faithless. The poison is in your heart."**

**She was right: I was dying. I could feel my breath slowing down. Nobody could save me, not even the gods.**

"If you jumped I could!" Poseidon said.

**I backed up and looked down at the water. I remembered the warm glow of my father's smile when I was a baby. He must have seen me. He must have visited me when I was in my cradle.**

"I did" Poseidon nodded.

**I remembered the swirling green trident that had appeared above my head the night of capture the flag, when Poseidon had claimed me as his son.**

**But this wasn't the sea. This was the Mississippi, dead center of the USA. There was no Sea God here.**

"Anywhere there is water I am there" Poseidon said.

**"Die, faithless one," Echidna rasped, and the Chimera sent a column of flame toward my face.**

**"Father, help me," I prayed.**

**I turned and jumped. My clothes on fire, poison coursing through my veins, I plummeted toward the river.**

Poseidon let out the breath he was holding.

"Done" Hermes said.

"I say we all head to bed" Zeus suggested.

"Sounds good" Sally said.

Everyon left to go to their rooms where they slept.

* * *

**okay...can't wait to write the christmas chapter!:) okay...in 5 more reading book chapters ill add the fight between percy, nico and thalia! review please! im also gonna make the pothena get togethrer in the next chapter! im using MrsEDarcy's idea btw!:)**

**also...heres the schedual...**

**winter solstice (day 1) december 20: chapters 1-4**

**december 21 (day 2): chapters 5-17**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	18. Decorating and a twist

**i hope you love this chapter as much as i do! please review:) warning pothena!**

**date=december 22(day 3)**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

Everyone woke up to the smell of eggs and bacon.

Hestia had prepared a whol breakfast buffet.

Everyone rushed to get their plates and once thier plates were full, and the demigods burnt their offerings, they all sat around the table.

"Now" Zeus said "we have some decorating to do today."

"Yes" Hera said, this would be the first Olympian Christmas.

"I was thinking we could have a big Christmas tree in the Throne Room and 3 small ones in the living room." Zeus said.

"Sounds good" Percy said and took a bite from his eggs.

"Can we bake cookies?" Katie asked.

"Sure!" Hera said.

"Who wants to do that?" Hestia asked.

Katie, Travis, Demeter, Persephone, and Hestia raised their hands.

"Okay you 5 are baking cookies" Hera said "Who wants to decorate the Throne Room's tree?"

Zeus, Hera, Ares, Hephaestus, Leo, Bekendorf, Silena, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Piper, and Jason raised their hands.

"Who wants to do the first living room tree?" Hera asked.

Percy, Annabeth, Poseidon, Athena, Sally and Paul raised their hands.

"Who's doing the second tree in the living room?"

Thalia, Grover, Hermes, Luke, Connor, Apollo and Artmeis raised their hands.

"Anyone want to do the third tree in the living room?"

Bianca, Frank, Hazel, Hades, and Nico raised their hands.

"And the rest of you are okay with just decorating the living room, that includes the mantle, windows, etc.?"

Clarisse, Chris, Chrion and Rachel nodded their heads.

"Okay lets get to work!" Hera said and everyone left to go do their jobs.

* * *

**In the Kitchen**

"What kind of cookies do you guys want to make?" Hestia asked.

"Sugar cookies" Katie, Demeter and Persephone said.

"What about you Travis?" Hestia asked.

"I'm gonna make whatever my girlfriend wants to make" Travis said and wrapped his arm around Katie.

"Awwwww you're sweet" Persephone said.

"Lets get started" Demeter said and began pulling out eggs, flour, vinegar and measuring cups.

"Cut outs?" she asked and held up a bag filled with Christmas shapes.

"Oh yes!" Katie said.

"Are we going to decorate them?" Persephone asked.

"I think we'll _make _the cookies and we'll let the other decorate some of them after all the other decorating is done" Hestia said and took out more cut outs.

"Sounds like a plan" Travis said.

"We're not just making sugar cookies are we?" Katie asked.

"No we'll make peanut butter blossoms, chocolate chips with and without nuts, brownies with and without nuts, and nobake cookies" Demeter said and Hestia nodded.

"Yum" Travis said.

"Lets get baking!" Demeter said and everyone started baking cookies.

* * *

**In the Throne room**

"Fake or real tree?" Hera asked.

"Fake" everyone said.

"Very well" Hera waved her hand and a 20ft fake Christmas tree appeared in a box and a whole bunch of ornaments appeared around it.

"We have to put it together?" Ares asked.

"Yes!" Leo, Bekendorf, and Hephaestus said and ran to the box and opened it up.

Hephaestus tipped it over and out came seperate branches and a long pipe which the branches went on.

Hera put the stand together and Zeus stuck the pipe into it.

It stood 10ft high now.

Each branch was marked with a different color piece of tape.

"The instructions say that the branches with the red tape go on the bottom" Aphrodite read.

There were 10 branches with red tape on them and they had lengths of 15ft and widths of 7ft.

On the pipe there was 10 little rungs close to the bottom that the ends of the branches stuck into.

Each person got a branch and stuck it into place.

"Now we have to spread the branches out to make them look fuller" Piper said.

Everyone took and spread out the branches to make them their full widths.

"The next color tape is green" Jason said after reading the instructions.

They continued with the branches.

* * *

**Decorating the 1st tree in the living room**

Annabeht, Percy, Poseidon, Athena, Sally and Paul were deciding whether to have a fake or real tree.

"I say real because I love the smell of pine" Annabeth said.

"So do I" Athena said and Sally nodded.

Poseidon, Paul and Percy looked at each other and shrugged.

"Can't argue with the women" Poseidon said and waved his hand and a 10ft real tree appeared in front of them.

"What color lights?" Percy asked "multi-color, clear or blue?"

"Multi-color" Athena and Annabeth said.

"Blue" Percy, Poseidon, Paul (who Sally had gotten attachted to blue) and Sally said, Sally winked at Percy.

"I wouldn't mind blue lights" Athena said and Annabeth nodded.

"Yeah" everyone agreed.

"I'll start putting on the lights" Percy said and picked up a string of blue lights.

"I'll help" Annabeth said.

Percy stood on one side of the tree and Annabeth stood on the other side and they passed the balled up string of lights to each other around the tree.

Once they were done Poseidon picked up another strand of the blue lights since they ran out of the first one and the tree needed to be covered.

"I'll help with the second set of lights" Sally said.

"Thank you" Poseidon said and smiled at her, she returned the smile.

Sally stood on one side and Poseidon stood on the other, just as Percy and Annabeth did, and passed the lights around the tree.

Soon as they plugged in the lights their tree lit up.

"Pretty" Annabeth said and Percy put his arm around her.

Sally smiled as Paul hugged her.

"Lets put the ornaments on now" Athena said and they went to work on that.

* * *

**Decorating the 2cd tree in the living room**

"Do we want a fake or real tree?" Hermes asked.

"Real" Artemis said.

"Fake" Apollo said.

Artemis glared at her twin.

"Lets take a vote" Thalia suggested.

"Okay, all in favor of a fake tree, raise your hand" Hermes said.

Apollo, Connor and Hermes raised their hands.

"Okay, all in favor of a real tree?" Hermes asked.

Artemis, Grover, Thalia and Luke raised their hands.

"Real tree it is!" Hermes said and waved his hand and a real tree stood there in front of them.

"Now for the lights?" Hermes asked "Multi-colored or clear?"

"Multi-colored!" everyone agreed.

"Okay then" Hermes said.

"Who will put them on?" Thalia asked.

"It looks like it'll take 3 people" Hermes said.

"I'll do it" Luke, Grover and Connor said.

"Okay" Hermes said "Luke you stand here, Grover you stand here, and Connor you stand here" Hermes positioned them all at one-thrid intervals around the tree.

Luke grabbed the ball of lights and hooked them onto the tree and passed the ball to Grover who wrapped it around to Connor who wrapped it around back to Luke.

They continued this until the tree was evenly lit.

Apollo plugged it in and the tree lit up.

"I love it" Artemis said.

"So do I" Thalia agreed.

"Time for decorations!" Hermes said.

* * *

**Decorating the 3rd tree in the living room**

"I want a real tree" Bianca said and Hazel noddedin agreement.

Nico shrugged "I'm okay with that."

"Same here" Frank said.

"Very well" Hades waved his hand and a real tree stood in front of them measuring 11ft in height.

"What color lights?" Nico asked and held up a ball of clear, multi-colored, silver and blue lights.

"Silver!" Hades, Bianca, and Hazel said.

"Awesome!" Nico said "Who wants to put them on?"

Frank and Hazel ran forward to put them on the tree.

"I'll stand on one side while you stand on the other and we'll pass them to each other" Frank said.

"Okay" Hazel replied.

They went to work, passing the strand of lights back and forth around the tree.

Once they were done Frank smiled and Hazel returned the smile.

Nico plugged it in and the tree lit up like the moon.

"Pretty" Hazel commented.

"Not as pretty as you" Frank said and kissed her.

Hades raised and eyebrow but said nothing.

Nico coughed.

"Ornaments?" he asked and Hades nodded.

* * *

**Decorating the living room**

"What should we do?" Chiron asked, now in Centaur form.

"I only know one thing we need" Rachel said.

"What is that?" Chiron asked.

"We have to many couples here not to put mistletoe" Chris answered.

"That is true...anything else?" Chrion said.

"Tinsle" Clarisse said.

"Okay...Rachel?"

"The trees will have enough light...candles" Rachel said.

"Of course" Chiron said.

"Shall we get to work?" Chris asked.

"Yup" Clarisse said "I'll hang up the mistletoe."

"I'll set up some candles" Rachel said.

"I do the tinsle" Chris said.

"I'll do decorating of my own" Chiron said.

Clarisse picked up some mistletoe and headed over to the doorway, next to where Hades's group was working.

She hung up the mistletoe and had an idea.

"Prissy!" she yelled across the room to where Percy and Annabeth were watching their lights.

Percy turned, so did Annabeth.

"What?" he yelled back.

Clarisse pointed to the mistletoe she just hung up then to Annabeth and Percy laughed.

"Come on" Percy said and dragged Annabeth over to the doorway.

"Mistletoe" Percy said and kissed Annabeth.

Clarisse moved away to hang up more misletoe in another doorway.

She got done hanging the other mistletoe and was going to help Chris with the tinsle when she turned around and there he was.

"Mistletoe" he said and before Clarisse could respond he kissed her.

Clarisse was shocked at first but then kissed him back.

Her first kiss.

When they were done, her face was bright red.

Chris laughed and took her hand and led her away to do tinsle.

Rachel was setting out candles and lighting them as she watched the 3 trees light up.

One in silver (Nico's group's), one in muliple colors (Thalia's group's) and one in blue (Percy's group's).

Rachel lit five more cnadle on the mantle and called Chris and Clarisse, who just had their first kiss under the misletoe, over to hang up tinsle.

"I'll go help Chiron" Rachel said.

"Okay" Chris said and began to hang up tinsle.

Rachel walked over to see what Chrion was doing.

He was switching out any flowers for poinsettas. He had taken any pictures and covered the frames in ribbon.

Right now he was hanging up garland.

"Need help?" Rachel asked.

"Why thank you Rachel" Chiron said.

Together they finished hanging garland around the room where the wall met the ceiling.

"Bows or lights?" Chiron asked.

"Both" Rachel replied and together they wrapped clear lights around the hung garland and they put big red bows whenver the garlandcame up.

"There" Chiron said and the decorating crew gathered up.

"A job well done...now the throne room" Chiron said.

Together they made thier way to the throne room to decorate.

* * *

**in the kitchen**

Demeter was pulling a batch of sugar cookies out of the oven and Travis was unwrapping Hershey kisses.

"Hey Katie!" he called.

Katie, who had been mixing brownie batter, looked pver at him.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Trade you a kiss for a kiss" he said and held up a Hershey kiss.

Katie laughed and walked over to him.

She kissed him then took the Hershey kiss and ate it.

"Yum" she said and Travis laughed.

"I love you" Travis said.

"Not more than I love you" Kaie said.

"Don't doubt me" he said and hugged her.

She giggled and kissed his cheek before going to mix her brownie batter.

Demeter made her way over to Travis to get another measuring cup.

"I see you're dating my daughter" she said and Travis jumped.

"Huh? Oh yeah! She's amazing!" he said and swallowed.

"I have a hard time with letting my daughters date" Demeter said.

"I would never do anything to hurt Katie...I love her" Travis said.

"You better" Demeter said and looked over to where Katie and Persephone were chatting.

Travis fallowed her gaze.

"I'm sorry about Persephone" he said.

Demeter was shocked.

"I'm sorry what?" she asked.

"I said I'm sorry about Persephone. Every mother should be able to see their daughter whenever they want to" Travis said "but you can't because of Hades."

"Yes," Demeter said "It broke my heart when Persephone told me she ate the pomegrante seeds."

"You get to see her now and bake with her and celebrate Christmas together" Travis said.

"Yes" Demeter said and looked at him "my daughter is lucky to have a guy who cares like you do."

Demeter walked away and joined her daughters in conversation.

The dinger went off for the rest of the cookies and once they were out they put finishing touches on them and called it a job well done, 4 dozen cookies.

* * *

**In the Throne Room**

The 20ft tree was all set up and the lights, clear of course, were on it.

"Beautiful" Piper said.

"You sure are" Jason replied looking at Piper.

Piper turned to him and he hugged her.

"I don't remeber meeting you but I know I like you" he said.

Piper laughed and Aphrodite squeled.

"Lets put the ornaments on!" Hera said.

"What colors are they?" Silena asked.

"Silver, gold, green, sparkle-green, gold and silver mixed...colors like that.

"Pretty" Aphrodite commented and Hepaestus nodded.

"I agree" Zeus said.

Each person picked up an ornament and hung it on the tree.

After 30 minutes all the ornaments were on the tree.

"Beautiful" Aphrodite said.

"Yup" Hephaestus said and scooted closer to her.

Hera came up with long curly sticks of sparkly grrens, silves and golds and stuck them in the tree.

Leo came up carry white poinsettas on long sticks and stuck them in the tree and Bekendorf layed pots of white poinsettas all around the tree.

Dionysus wrapped a silver and green tree skirt around the base.

"Who will do the star?" Ares asked.

Aphrodite raised her hand.

"Can you reach?" Hephaestus asked her.

Aphrodite took the star and looked up.

"No" she said.

Hephaestus picked her up and put her on his right shoulder and grew to a height of 10ft.

Aphrodite reached up and stuck the star on the tree and the whole thing lit up.

Hephaestus put his wife down and she giggled and hugged him.

Ares looked at his brother murderously.

Hera was beaming with happiness.

Their first tree was done.

* * *

**Decorating the 1st tree in the iving room**

"What color are the ornaments?" Percy asked.

"Blue, blue and silver, and just silver" Athena said.

"Cool" Annaebth said.

Each person reached for an ornament.

Posediona reached for the same ornament as Athena, their hands touched.

Athena looked up at the same time as Poseidon and their eyes met.

Their gazes held each others for aminute before Athena looked away blushing.

Poseidon handed her the ornament, a silver owl.

"Here" he said.

"Thanks" she said and hung the owl up.

Annabeth had hung up a glittery storm cloud and Percy had hung up a pretty light gray olive tree.

Annabeth laughed.

"Out ornaments got mixed" she said.

"Yeah" he said and smiled at her.

Once all the ornaments were hung up they hung glittery, stringy iscicles up all around the tree and they stood back to admire their work.

"Absolutely beautiful" Sally said.

"Sure is" Paul said and kissed her.

* * *

**Decorating the 2cd tree in the livng room**

"Look!" Apollo said "there's an ornament for each god and goddess!"

They gathered around to look at the ornaments for the gods.

Thalia pulled out a yellow lightning bolt and a silver owl, Apollo pulled out a lyre and a hammer, Luke pulled out a trident and a spear, Artemis pulled out a moon and seashell, Hermes pulled out a caduceus and a peacock, Connor pulled out a grape vine and a stalk of corn, and Grover pulled out a flame and a helm of darkness.

They hung their ornaments on the tree.

They hung up a scale, pan pipes, a magic wand, a sleeping person, a young girl, a baby, a flower, a night sky scene, a sun, a doorway, a snowflake, an ice sculpture, a rainbow, and a heart with an arrow through it.

"Our tree is like a tribute to all the gods" Thalia commented.

"Yup" Luke said "the major and the minor ones."

"I love it" Artemis and Apollo said at the same time fallowed by an awkward silence.

"Awkward" Connor said ina sing-song voice and everyone laughed.

"So can you 3 tell me about the future?" Apollo asked Thalia, Grover and Connor.

"Sorry Apollo, we can't" Thalia said.

"But I need to know! It's been bothering me!" he whined.

"Oh quit whining" Artemis said.

"Fine...I'm gonna go get a drink" Apollo said.

"Okay" Thalia said.

Apollo walked out and looked for the ingredients for a truth serum that he could pour in Percy or Annaebht's drink to tell him what happened.

All this talk about war with Titans concerned him and he wanted to know what the whole thing was about.

* * *

**Decorating the 3rd tree in the living room**

Nico was looking through the ornaments.

"We only have silver, black, white and grey ornaments" he declared.

"Okay" everyone said and went to work picking out ornaments and hanging them ont he tree.

Amoungst the first ornaments was a skull and crossbones, a three-headed dog, a river, and a maze.

"Oh look at this one" Bianca said and evryone gathered in to look.

It was a blonde girl throwing a red rubber ball to a three-headed dog while 2 boys snuck underneath the dog.

"They look familiar" Nico said.

"She looks like Annabeth" Bianca said pointing to the blonde girl.

"That looks like Jackson" Hades said pointing to a boy with black hair.

"Is that Grover?" Nico asked pointing to the boy walking with a limp.

Bianca got up and carried the ornament over to Grover.

"Grover, this guys looks like you!" she said and showed the ornament to the satyr.

Grover snatched it out of her hands.

"Where did you get this?" he asked.

"Ornament bin" Bianca said.

"That's me, Percy and Annabeth on our first quest together" Grover said.

"So this was real?" Bianca asked.

"Yeah..." Grover said and handed the ornament back to Bianca.

"Cool" he said.

Bianca went back and told the rest of the group what Grover told her.

"This was real?" Nico asked.

"Yeah...Grover said it was their first quest together" Bianca said.

"Cool!" Nico said and they hung it on the tree.

* * *

**Decoratign the Throne room.**

The group of decoraters came into the Throne room just as Aphrodite finished putting the star on the tree.

Clarisse went and hung up some mistletoe in the 2 doorways to the Throne Room whil Rachel and Chrion did their garland around the room.

"Clarisse!" Chris yelled.

"Yeah" Clarisse yelled back.

"Help me with the tinsel?" he asked.

"Sure!" she said and rushed over to help her boyfriend with the tinsel around the thrones.

"Oh look!" Hera squeled "Mistletoe!"

She dragged Zeus over underneath it where he kissed her.

Their kiss was long and they only stopped when Ares cleared his throat.

The married couple pulled away and were red in the face.

Chiron was tying the red bows on the garland while Rachel wrapped lights around the hung garland.

Once Rachel was done with the lights she started to light floating candles around the room and putting pots of poinsettas around the thrones.

Clarisse ran off to hang mistletoe in the kitchen.

Chiron asked Zeus if he would let it snow outside.

"Only enoguh to lightly cover the ground" Chiron said and Zeus obliged and Rachel asked Hera if she woul lay out candles lining the road.

"Of course" Hera said and snapped her fingers.

Rachel looked outside and sure enough the road to throne room was lit with hundreds of glowing candles that didn't burn out in the snow or cold.

Chiron also asked Zeus if he would make it so that it would snow int he Throne Room but the snow would never reacht he ground.

Zeus snapped his fingers and from the ceiling to about 10ft above the thrones, it was snowing.

A bell rang from the kitchen calling everyone in to eat lunch.

Everyone filed out of the Throne Room but Aphrodite and Hephaestus stopped under the mistletoe and shared a kiss in fron tof everyone, even a glaring Ares.

She laced her perfectly manacured fingers with his stained ones and left to the kitchen.

"Awwwwww" Hera said.

They all came into the kitchen to see Katie and Travis, Clarisse and Chris, Percy and Annaebth and Sally and Paul sharing kisses underneath the mistletoe.

Apollo came in and poured his serum into two drinks.

"Here you go" Apollo said and handed the drink he just mad to who he thought was Percy and the second drink to who he thought was Annabeth.

"Thank you Apollo" Athena said.

"Your welcome" Apollo replied.

Poseidon and Athena sat down and Percy and Annabeth came up to get drinks.

"Hello Apollo" Ananbeth said politely.

"Hello Annabeth...Annabeth?" he asked and looked around and saw Athena, who looked very similair to Annabeth, take a drink from her cup.

"Something wrong Apollo?" Percy asked.

"Percy?" Apollo asked and saw Poseidon, who looked like Percy a lot, take a drink from his cup.

"Shit!" he whispered.

"What's wrong?" Annabeth said.

"Nothing" Apollo said.

Apollo sat down at his seat bummed that his plan failed.

Aphrodite went on to antagonize Athena and Poseidon.

"So...Poseidon, don't you just think Athena's eyes are really pretty?" she asked.

Now normally Poseidon would say no but he's under a truth serum so...

"Yes" Poseidon said "they are very pretty."

Athena looked down and blushed.

_"Why did I say that?"_ Poseidon thought.

Aphrodite raised an eyebrow.

"Athena! I really love Poseidon's hair don't you?" she asked.

"Yes" Athena said "I love the color."

Athena covered her mouth and looked horrified and Poseidon was looking down.

Everyone else was in shock.

"Athena do you like Poseidon?" Aphrodite asked.

"Yes" Athena squeked from behind her hand.

"Poseidon do you like Athena?" Aphrodite asked.

"Yes!" Poseidon said before he could stop himself.

They were looking at each other.

"You like me?" they said at the same time "I thought you hated me?"

Aphrodite was squirming in her seat.

Annabeth and Percy were looking at each other then to their parents.

Athena and Poseidon got up and left the table, but not together.

"Awkward" Connor said and everyone laughed and went back to their conversations.

* * *

**Athena's thoughts**

_Why did I say those things? I've always been able to keep my feeling away but tonight they just slipped. Now I look stupid because I'm a virgin goddess and I like Poseidon, someone who I am supposed to hate because of Medusa._

Athena was walking along the candle lit road.

_What did Aphrodite do to me? I could've gone my whole existence without Poseidon knowing I liked him. _

She stopped dead in her tracks.

_I wanted him to know! no one said I had to stay a virgin forever! But he has a wife! Aphrodite has a husband! You're not like Aphrodite!_

Athena was arguing with herself as she walked back to the throne room.

The sight that met her was fantastic. The snow, the floating candles, the tree. It was beautiful.

She sat there for a minute just looking at the falling snow and floating candles.

* * *

**Poseidon's thoughts**

_Why in the name of Hades would I say that?! I'm supposed to hate Athena because of Athens. Besides she's a virgin godess and I have Amphitrite and I still love Sally. Sally has Paul though._

Poseidon was walking around Olympus thinking over dinner.

_"What could Aphrodite do to make me say those things. I never wanted her to know because I don't want her to hate me more. But she likes me back! She's a virgin goddess though, no marriage. Vows can be broken right?_

Poseidon started to head back to the Throne Room because he thinks a whole lot better in his throne and he heard the Throne Room looks AWESOME.

He was just coming into the living room where his son and Annabeth were curled up on a sofa talking and laughing.

He watched them for a second except he didn't see Percy and Annabeth, he saw Athena and himself.

Poseidon shook his head and continued to walk past them without them noticing he was there.

He made it! The Throne Room.

He walked to the door and ran into someone.

Athena.

* * *

**no one's thoughts.**

Athan stopped and looked at him and he looked into the eyes he admitted were beautiful at lunch.

"Sorry" she said.

"About what?" he said.

"Running into you" she replied.

"No you're fine...it was my fault" Poseidon said.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Trying to clear my head. You?" he said.

"Trying to clear my head." she replied.

Something caught Poseidon's eye above their heads.

Mistletoe.

Athena fallowed his gaze and saw it.

"Mistletoe" she said and looked into his sea green eyes.

"Yeah" he said and gave her a crooked smile that made her heart melt.

Poseidon leaned in and Athena met him halfway.

The kiss was like heaven.

Athena had never felt so happy.

Her arms went around his neck and his hands moved to her neck, pulling her closer.

Poseidon pulled away and Athena looked at him.

"Whoa" he said and Athena giggled.

"Amazing" he said and Athena nodded.

He hugged her and she hugged him back.

They walked away, down the candle lit road holding hands, away from Aphrodite who had secretly been watching the entire thing.

* * *

**i was so happy writing this story. i ended up yelling at my sister and brother because they kept interupting my writing, that and my sister came into my room with a spider *shudders* i hope you like it! i was so giddy when i wrote the kiss scene:) please review.**

**you guys are gonna get a lot of chapters this week cause i bet my friend that i could go 3 nights without sleep...yeah i know i can get sick...anythign to prove a point;)**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~ **


	19. I Become a Known Fugitive

**this chapter is dedicated to heeseungeun *applause* the 145th reviewer!**

**the 200th reviewer gets a chapter dedicated to them!**

**I do not have a child with ADHD/dyslexia...i do not even have kids...i don't live in texas...im not a guy...and my first name is not rick...so how can i own PJO you ask. the answer? I don't! lol**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

A bell rang, signaling everyone to meet in the livng room.

Zeus waved his hand and enough seating for everyone appeared in the room.

Percy and Annabeth, Travis and Katie, Jason and Piper, Paul and Sally, Aphrodite and Hephaestus, Frank and Hazel, and Zeus and Hera were all sitting on seperate love-seats.

Bekendorf, Silena, Rachel Clarisse, and Chris shared a couch.

Thalia, Grover, Luke, Connor, and Leo shared a couch.

Nico, Bianca, Hades, Persephone, and Demeter shared the last couch.

Artemis, Apollo, Ares, Hestia, Hermes and Dionysus all got armchairs to themselves and Chiron sat in his wheelchair.

Athena and Poseidon came in the lving room and quite a few eyebrows went up.

They were holding hands.

They had a choice pop up in front of them.

Another loveseat and 2 more armchairs appeared out of thin air.

Everyone thought, well everyone except Aphrodite, that they would each go into an armchair.

The duo surprised their relatives by sitting in the loveseat together.

Zeus raised an eyebrow.

Aphrodite squeled as the fireplace lit up with firelight.

"I saw it" she said suddenly and Poseidon and Athena looked at her with shock.

"Saw what?" they asked, blushing.

"The kiss" Aphrodite said and chatter started up.

"Kiss?!" people asked and Poseidona nd Athena blushed even more.

"You kissed?" Zeus asked and Hera grabbed his arm, keeping him in his seat.

"Yes Father" Athena said.

Percy and Annabeth looked at each other.

"Athena you swore to be a maiden forever" Zeus said and his eyes flashed like lightning.

"Uh..." Athena said and for once she was lost for words

Zeus let out a sigh.

"Fine" he said "it's fine. Whatever makes you happy."

Athena's eyes lit up.

"Really Father?" she asked and Zeus nodded.

Athena would've squeled, if she were like that, but she smiled all big and Poseidon kissed the top of her head.

Aphrodite was smiling like an idiot.

Percy and Annabeth were looking at each other...this was awkward.

Poseidon noticed them.

"Oh" he said "There is no need for you two to be awkward."

Athena looked over and smiled at Annabeth.

"No" she said "no need. There is nothing wrong with that...we're all family. I guess I'm dating my uncle now."

"Yeah" Poseidon said "Zeus and Hera are brother and sister."

"Clarisse and Chris? Technically Chris would be "Athena did some thinking "half cousins?"

Annabeth and Percy relaxed into their spots and Percy put his arm around Annabeth.

"So...who wants to read?" Zeus asked and put the book in the air.

Luke raised his hand.

Zeus passed the book to the Son of Hermes and Luke turned to the page they were on.

**"I become a known fugitive, "** Luke read.

"First of many times" Annabeth said and everyone laughed as Percy pouted.

**I'd love to tell you I had some deep revelation on my way down, that I came to terms with my own mortality, laughed in the face of death, et cetera.**

"No" Thalia said "you were probably screaming your head off."

"Hey!" Percy said and looked down "yeah I was."

Everyone laughed.

**The truth? My only thought was: Aaaagggh!"**

**The river raced toward me at the speed of a truck. Wind ripped the breath from my lungs. Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of my vision.**

**And then: Flaaa-boooom!**

"Fla-boom?" Leo asked "You exploded?"

"No that's ka-boom" Percy joked.

"True" Leo said and everyone laughed.

**A whiteout of bubbles. I sank through the murk, sure that I was about to end up embedded in a hundred feet of mud and lost forever.**

**But my impact with the water hadn't hurt. I was falling slowly now, bubbles trickling up through my fingers. I settled on the river bottom soundlessly. A catfish the size of my stepfather **

"Whoa! Huge catfish!" Nico joked.

"He's a different stepfather Paul" Percy said after a look that passed his stepfather's face.

"You were married before me?" Paul asked Sally.

"Yeah" she said "I married a horrible man that smelled really bad to hide Percy's half-blood scent."

"Love you mom" Percy said.

"Love you too" Sally said.

**lurched away into the gloom. Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage-beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags-swirled up all around me.**

Poseidon, Grover and Artemis looked murderous.

"No respect for nature" Grover huffed and Artemis nodded her head.

"Remind me to clean that river later" Poseidon whispered in Athena's ear.

"Kay" she said and smiled before kissing him on the cheek.

**At that point, I realized a few things: first, I had not been flattened into a pancake. I had not been barbecued. I couldn't even feel the Chimera poison boiling in my veins anymore. I was alive, which was good.**

"This is a good thing" Poseidon said.

**Second realization: I wasn't wet. I mean, I could feel the coolness of the water. I could see where the fire on my clothes had been quenched. But when I touched my own shirt, it felt perfectly dry.**

"That's cool" Leo said.

"It gets cooler" Percy promised.

**I looked at the garbage floating by and snatched an old cigarette lighter.**

**No way, I thought.**

**I flicked the lighter. It sparked. A tiny flame appeared, right there at the bottom of the Mississippi.**

"Awesome!" Leo said.

**I grabbed a soggy hamburger wrapper out of the current and immediately the paper turned dry. I lit it with no problem. As soon as I let it go, the flames sputtered out. The wrapper turned back into a slimy rag. Weird.**

**But the strangest thought occurred to me only last: I was breathing. I was underwater, and I was breathing normally.**

"You'd think that was the first thing he noticed" Annaebth said.

"He trumps Jason's powers" Leo said.

"What do you mean Leo?" Piper asked.

"Jason can only fly and cause lightning" Leo said "but Percy here..."

"Why does he get to fly?" Thalia whined.

Everyone chuckled.

**I stood up, thigh-deep in mud. My legs felt shaky. My hands trembled. I should've been dead. The fact that I wasn't seemed like … well, a miracle. I imagined a woman's voice, a voice that sounded a bit like my mother: Percy, what do you say?**

**"Um … thanks." Underwater, I sounded like I did on recordings, like a much older kid. "Thank you … Father."**

"You're welcome son" Poseidon said.

**No response. Just the dark drift of garbage downriver, the enormous catfish gliding by, the flash of sunset on the water's surface far above, turning everything the color of butterscotch.**

**Why had Poseidon saved me?**

"Uh...cause he's your dad?" Thalia asked.

**The more I thought about it, the more ashamed I felt. So I'd gotten lucky a few times before. Against a thing like the Chimera, I had never stood a chance. Those poor people in the Arch were probably toast. I couldn't protect them. I was no hero. Maybe I should just stay down here with the catfish, join the bottom feeders.**

**Fump-fump-fump. A riverboat's paddlewheel churned above me, swirling the silt around.**

**There, not five feet in front of me, was my sword, its gleaming bronze hilt sticking up in the mud.**

**I heard that woman's voice again: Percy, take the sword. Your father believes in you. This time, I knew the voice wasn't in my head. I wasn't imagining it. Her words seemed to come from everywhere, rippling through the water like dolphin sonar.**

**"Where are you?" I called aloud.**

"Thinking she was a monster?" Thalia asked.

"No she sounded nice" Percy replied.

**Then, through the gloom, I saw her-a woman the color of the water, a ghost in the current, floating just above the sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like mine.**

**A lump formed in my throat. I said, "Mom?"**

Sally looked down and Paul squeezed her hand.

**No, child, only a messenger, though your mother's fate is not as hopeless as you believe. Go to the beach in Santa Monica.**

**"What?"**

**It is your father's will. Before you descend into the Underworld, you must go to Santa Monica. Please, Percy, I cannot stay long. The river here is too foul for my presence.**

"Which is why I'm cleaning it" Poseidon said.

**"But …" I was sure this woman was my mother, or a vision of her, anyway. "Who-how did you-"**

**There was so much I wanted to ask, the words jammed up in my throat.**

**I cannot stay, brave one, the woman said. She reached out, and I felt the current brush my face like a caress. You must go to Santa Monica! And, Percy, do not trust the gifts….**

"What gifts?" Nico asked.

"You'll see" Percy said.

**Her voice faded.**

**"Gifts?" I asked. "What gifts? Wait!"**

**She made one more attempt to speak, but the sound was gone. Her image melted away. If it was my mother, I had lost her again.**

"It wasn't your mother" Poseidons aid and looked down.

Athena layed her head on his shoulder and her wrapped his arm around her.

**I felt like drowning myself. The only problem: I was immune to drowning.**

"That is and obstacle if you want to drown yourself" Connor joked.

**Your father believes in you, she had said.**

"I do" Poseidons aid.

**She'd also called me brave … unless she was talking to the catfish.**

Everyone laughed.

**I waded toward Riptide and grabbed it by the hilt. The Chimera might still be up there with its snaky, fat mother, waiting to finish me off. At the very least, the mortal police would be arriving, trying to figure out who had blown a hole in the Arch. If they found me, they'd have some questions. **

**I capped my sword, stuck the ballpoint pen in my pocket. "Thank you, Father," I said again to the dark water.**

"You're welcome" Poseidon said.

**Then I kicked up through the muck and swam for the surface.**

**I came ashore next to a floating McDonald's.**

**A block away, every emergency vehicle in St. Louis was surrounding the Arch. Police helicopters circled overhead. The crowd of onlookers reminded me of Times Square on New Year's Eve.**

**A little girl said, "Mama! That boy walked out of the river."**

"Haha you were caught" Thalia said.

**"That's nice, dear," her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.**

**"But he's dry!"**

**"That's nice, dear."**

"I love mortals" Apollo said.

"So clueless" Hermes finished.

**A news lady was talking for the camera: "Probably not a terrorist attack,**

"Well...Percy might be a terrorist...we never know" Thalia joked and everyone laughed.

"Yeah I'm totally a terrorist" Percy said and rolled his eyes.

** we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get to some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch."**

"Survivors" Athena said and sighed with relief.

"And people saw you fall through the hole in the arch" Thalia said.

**Survivors. I felt a surge of relief. Maybe the park ranger and that family made it out safely. I hoped Annabeth and Grover were okay.**

**I tried to push through the crowd to see what was going on inside the police line.**

**"… an adolescent boy," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities …"**

"Thank the gods" Piper said.

**I backed away, trying to keep my head down. I had to go a long way around the police perimeter. Uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere.**

**I'd almost lost hope of ever finding Annabeth and Grover when a familiar voice bleated, "Perrr-cy!"**

**I turned and got tackled by Grover's bear hug-or goat hug. He said, "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"**

Grover blushed as others laughed.

"It'd be easier" Percy said.

**Annabeth stood behind him, trying to look angry, but even she seemed relieved to see me. "We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"**

"When we leave him alone for too long he gets bored and blows stuff up" Thalias aid while Percy humphed and evryone lese laughed.

**"I sort of fell."**

"How do you 'sort of' fall?" Hermes asked and Percy shrugged.

**"Percy! Six hundred and thirty feet?"**

**Behind us, a cop shouted, "Gangway!" The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. I recognized her immediately as the mother of the little boy who'd been on the observation deck. She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua-"**

"She saw something" Athena said.

**"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in."**

"Thank the gods all the people were fine" Hera said.

**"I'm not crazy! This boy jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared." Then she saw me. "There he is! That's the boy!"**

"Anyone catch you? "Hermes asked.

"No, the paramedis still thought she was hallucinating" Percy said.

**I turned quickly and pulled Annabeth and Grover after me. We disappeared into the crowd.**

"Good idea getting lost in acrowd" Athena said and Poseidon nodded.

**"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded. "Was she talking about the Chihuahua on the elevator?"**

**I told them the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, my high-dive act, and the underwater lady's message.**

**"Whoa," said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."**

"You can..." Athena said joked and smiled at the man next to her.

"I would prefer you not to though" Poseidon said.

**Before Annabeth could respond, we passed another reporter doing a news break, and I almost froze in my tracks when he said, "Percy Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. And the boy is believed to be traveling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."**

**We ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley.**

"Haha" Ares said "you have rotten luck."

**"First things first," I told Grover. "We've got to get out of town!"**

"Another good idea!" Nico said "You're on a roll Perce."

Percy pouted and evryone else laughed.

Annabeth kissed him.

**Somehow, we made it back to the Amtrak station without getting spotted. We got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us.**

"Done" Luke said "who's next?"

"May I read?" Paul asked.

"Sure" Luke said and handed the book to Percy's stepdad.

* * *

**please review! im thinking of writing a bunch of stories for Pothena! tell me your thoguhts on that!**

**the results for the fight are posted now.**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	20. A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers

**i am so sorry about the lateness...i explained in the bottom author's note. please review and remember the 200th reviewer and the winner of my little contest at the bottom:) here's chaoter 20!:)**

**disclaimer: i tried to convince R.R to sign over rights to PJO to me but he wouldnt have it:( so i don't own PJO**

**HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!:D we didn't die in 2012! what an accomplishment;)**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

**"A God buys us cheeseburgers," **Paul read.

"Which god?" Zeus asked.

"You'll see" Percy replied.

**The next afternoon, June 14, seven days before the solstice, our train rolled into Denver. We hadn't eaten since the night before in the dining car, somewhere in Kansas. We hadn't taken a shower since Half-Blood Hill, and I was sure that was obvious.**

"Uh...Gross?" Thalia said.

Everyone laughed.

**"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."**

**"We can't use phones, right?"**

"He's finnally getting it!" Thalia said.

"Halleluiah" Nico joked and everyone laughed.

**"I'm not talking about phones."**

**We wandered through downtown for about half an hour, though I wasn't sure what Annabeth was looking for. The air was dry and hot, which felt weird after the humidity of St. Louis. Everywhere we turned, the Rocky Mountains seemed to be staring at me, like a tidal wave about to crash into the city.**

"Another water metaphor" Athena said.

**Finally we found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. We veered toward the stall farthest from the street, keeping our eyes open for patrol cars. We were three adolescents hanging out at a car wash without a car; any cop worth his doughnuts would figure we were up to no good.**

"You're always up to no good" Thalia said.

"Not true!" Percy protested.

"True" everyone told him and he pouted until Annabeth kissed him.

**"What exactly are we doing?" I asked, as Grover took out the spray gun.**

**"It's seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"**

**"Don't look at me," she said. "The dining car wiped me out."**

**I fished out my last bit of change and passed Grover a quarter, which left me two nickels and one drachma from Medusa's place.**

**"Excellent," Grover said. "We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping."**

"I love how you're just leaving Percy there to wonder what in the name of Hades you're doing" Thalia said.

**"What are you talking about?"**

**He fed in the quarters and set the knob to FINE MIST. "I-M'ing."**

**"Instant messaging?"**

**"Iris-messaging," Annabeth corrected. "The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."**

"Apparently she's never busy" a demigod murmered.

**"You summon the goddess with a spray gun?"**

Everyone laughed.

**Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist. "Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow."**

**Sure enough, late afternoon light filtered through the vapor and broke into colors.**

**Annabeth held her palm out to me. "Drachma, please."**

**I handed it over.**

**She raised the coin over her head. "O goddess, accept our offering."**

**She threw the drachma into the rainbow. It disappeared in a golden shimmer.**

**"Half-Blood Hill," Annabeth requested.**

**For a moment, nothing happened.**

**Then I was looking through the mist at strawberry fields, and the Long Island Sound in the distance. We seemed to be on the porch of the Big House. Standing with his back to us at the railing was a sandy-haired guy in shorts and an orange tank top. He was holding a bronze sword and seemed to be staring intently at something down in the meadow.**

**"Luke!" I called.**

"Me?" Luke asked.

**He turned, eyes wide. I could swear he was standing three feet in front of me through a screen of mist, except I could only see the part of him that appeared in the rainbow.**

**"Percy!" His scarred face broke into a grin. "Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?"**

**"We're … uh … fine," Annabeth stammered. She was madly straightening her dirty T-shirt, trying to comb the loose hair out of her face. "We thought-Chiron-I mean-"**

Annabeth and Luke were blushing a deep red.

Everyone else was laughing.

**"He's down at the cabins." Luke's smile faded. "We're having some issues with the campers. Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover all right?"**

**"I'm right here," Grover called. He held the nozzle out to one side and stepped into Luke's line of vision. "What kind of issues?"**

**Just then a big Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo turned to maximum hip-hop. As the car slid into the next stall, the bass from the subwoofers vibrated so much, it shook the pavement.**

"I hate people like that" Artemis said.

"I'm like that" Apollo said.

"Exactly" Artemis replied.

"Hurtful" Apollo said.

**"Chiron had to-what's that noise?" Luke yelled.**

**"I'll take care of it.'" Annabeth yelled back, looking very relieved to have an excuse to get out of sight. "Grover, come on!**

**"What?" Grover said. "But-"**

**"Give Percy the nozzle and come on!" she ordered.**

**Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle at Delphi, then he handed me the spray gun and followed Annabeth.**

"They are" Frank said.

The girls all snickered.

"What would make you say that?" Hazel asked.

"They like to lead a guy on that they like them then crush their dreams" Connor said.

"We love doing that" Rachel said.

The girls laughed and nodded in agreement whereas the boys pouted.

**I readjusted the hose so I could keep the rainbow going and still see Luke.**

**"Chiron had to break up a fight," Luke shouted to me over the music. "Things are pretty tense here, Percy. Word leaked out about the Zeus-Poseidon standoff. We're still not sure how-probably the same scumbag who summoned the hellhound. Now the campers are starting to take sides. It's shaping up like the Trojan War all over again. Aphrodite, Ares, and Apollo are backing Poseidon, more or less.**

"Hehe" Poseidon said "Good choice."

**Athena is backing Zeus."**

"I have Athena" Zeus said.

"I can see why my children took his side" Athena said "even though I think Poseidon's right."

Everyone looked at her.

"What? He never stole the bolt and he's getting falsley**(A/N:spellcheck)** judged

**I shuddered to think that Clarisse's cabin would ever be on my dad's side for anything. In the next stall, I heard Annabeth and some guy arguing with each other, then the music's volume decreased drastically.**

"How'd you do that?" Travis said.

Annabeth smiled crookedly.

"Lets just say...I can negotiate VERY well" she took out her bronze knife.

**"So what's your status?" Luke asked me. "Chiron will be sorry he missed you."**

**I told him pretty much everything, including my dreams. It felt so good to see him, to feel like I was back at camp even for a few minutes, that I didn't realize how long I had talked until the beeper went off on the spray machine, and I realized I only had one more minute before the water shut off.**

**"I wish I could be there," Luke told me. "We can't help much from here, I'm afraid, but listen … it had to be Hades who took the master bolt. He was there at Olympus at the winter solstice. I was chaperoning a field trip and we saw him."**

**"But Chiron said the gods can't take each other's magic items directly."**

**"That's true," Luke said, looking troubled. "Still … Hades has the helm of darkness. How could anybody else sneak into the throne room and steal the master bolt? You'd have to be invisible."**

Athena glared at Luke.

"I didn't mean Annabeth!" Luke said and put his hands in the air.

**We were both silent, until Luke seemed to realize what he'd said.**

**"Oh, hey," he protested. "I didn't mean Annabeth. She and I have known each other forever. She would never … I mean, she's like a little sister to me."**

**I wondered if Annabeth would like that description. In the stall next to us, the music stopped completely. A man screamed in terror, car doors slammed, and the Lincoln peeled out of the car wash.**

Everyone laughed.

**"You'd better go see what that was," Luke said. "Listen, are you wearing the flying shoes? I'll feel better if I know they've done you some good."**

**"Oh … uh, yeah!" I tried not to sound like a guilty liar.**

"Good luck with that" Nico said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Percy asked.

"It means you suck at lying" Thalia said.

"And witty fighting comments/insults" Apollo said and everyone laughed as Percy tried to think of an excuse for being a bad liar.

**"Yeah, they've come in handy."**

**"Really?" He grinned. "They fit and everything?"**

**The water shut off. The mist started to evaporate.**

**"Well, take care of yourself out there in Denver," Luke called, his voice getting fainter. "And tell Grover it'll be better this time! Nobody will get turned into a pine tree if he just-"**

"You just had to mention that!" Thalia said.

"Sorry" Luke said.

**But the mist was gone, and Luke's image faded to nothing. I was alone in a wet, empty car wash stall.**

**Annabeth and Grover came around the corner, laughing, but stopped when they saw my face. Annabeth's smile faded. "What happened, Percy? What did Luke say?"**

**"Not much," I lied, my stomach feeling as empty as a Big Three cabin. "Come on, let's find some dinner."**

"Mmmmmmmm dinner" Apollo and Hermes sighed.

"You just had lunch" Artemis said.

**A few minutes later, we were sitting at a booth in a gleaming chrome diner. All around us, families were eating burgers and drinking malts and sodas.**

Hermes and Apollo's stomach growled.

**Finally the waitress came over. She raised her eyebrow skeptically. "Well?"**

**I said, "We, um, want to order dinner."**

**"You kids have money to pay for it?"**

**Grover's lower lip quivered. I was afraid he would start bleating, or worse, start eating the linoleum. Annabeth looked ready to pass out from hunger.**

"Awwwwwwwwwwwww" the girls cooed.

"You're worried about her" Silena said.

Percy blushed and Annabeth laughed.

**I was trying to think up a sob story **

"Works everytime "Nico said and all those who have been on quests nodded in agreement.

"We should add that to the classes at Camp Half-Blood!" Travis said.

"Yeah...how to make up a sob story!" Connor said.

"Hermes cabin could take turns teaching!" Chris said.

Hermes looked at his kids with pride.

"Luke can't though" Travis said.

"Why?" Chris asked.

"Cause he teaches the sword fighting" Travis said.

The Stolls talked about their brother as if he had never turned into Kronos and wrecked havac on their camp.

**for the waitress when a rumble shook the whole building; a motorcycle the size of a baby elephant had pulled up to the curb.**

"Me?" Ares asked.

Percy nodded.

"What the Hades am I doing there?" Ares asked.

"Something Annabeth hates you for" Percy said and Annabeth shivered at the thought of the metal creeps.

Ares narrowed his eyes.

**All conversation in the diner stopped. The motorcycle's headlight glared red. Its gas tank had flames painted on it, and a shotgun holster riveted to either side, complete with shotguns. The seat was leather-but leather that looked like … well, Caucasian human skin.**

**The guy on the bike would've made pro wrestlers run for Mama. He was dressed in a red muscle shirt and black jeans and a black leather duster, with a hunting knife strapped to his thigh. He wore red wraparound shades, and he had the cruelest, most brutal face I'd ever seen- handsome, I guess, but wicked-with an oily black crew cut and cheeks that were scarred from many, many fights. The weird thing was, I felt like I'd seen his face somewhere before.**

"Yeah...the looks on Cabin Five's faces" Leo said "even as they stuff your head down the toilet."

Clarisse smirked.

"Wait, why wasn't my head stuffed down a toilet?" Piper asked and Silena nodded.

"Cause, I'm afraid of what will happen if I mess up one of Aphrodite's kids' hair or makeup" Clarisse said.

Everyone thought about it...

...and shivered.

Silena and Piper smirked.

"Clown for a month" Connor mumbled.

"Looked like a geek" Travis grumbled. **(A/N: -Connor and Travis's quotes refer to their interview in the Demigod Files)**

**As he walked into the diner, a hot, dry wind blew through the place. All the people rose, as if they were hypnotized, but the biker waved his hand dismissively and they all sat down again. Everybody went back to their conversations. The waitress blinked, as if somebody had just pressed the rewind button on her brain. She asked us again, "You kids have money to pay for it?"**

**The biker said, "It's on me." He slid into our booth, which was way too small for him, and crowded Annabeth against the window.**

"You hate me for that?" Ares asked.

"No...it's later" Annabeth said.

**He looked up at the waitress, who was gaping at him, and said, "Are you still here?"**

"Rude" Hera said.

"Sorry mom" Ares said though he didn't sound sorry.

**He pointed at her, and she stiffened. She turned as if she'd been spun around, then marched back toward the kitchen.**

**The biker looked at me. I couldn't see his eyes behind the red shades, but bad feelings started boiling in my stomach. Anger, resentment, bitterness. I wanted to hit a wall. I wanted to pick a fight with somebody. Who did this guy think he was?**

**He gave me a wicked grin. "So you're old Seaweed's kid, huh?"**

Poseidon chuckled.

"That's the best you come up with?" Athena asked.

"Dionysus came up with a better one" Poseidon said.

Ares shrugged.

Everyone laughed and Aphrodite held in a squel, because Poseidon had kissed Athena.

**I should've been surprised, or scared, but instead I felt like I was looking at my stepdad, Gabe. I wanted to rip this guy's head off. "What's it to you?"**

"Ooooooooooh...you're asking for it now" Ares said.

"Hey Clarisse!" Percy said, ignoring Ares.

Clarisse looked over.

"What Prissy?" she asked.

"Later in the book you'll read about that time I 'disgraced' your cabin" Percy said and Clarisse glared at him.

"I might have to kill you" Clarisse said.

"Curse of Achilles" Percy said and Clarisse cursed.

Everyone laughed, even though some were confused about what Percy meant when he said 'disgrace your cabin'.

**Annabeth's eyes flashed me a warning. "Percy, this is-"**

**The biker raised his hand.**

**"S'okay," he said. "I don't mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who's the boss. You know who I am, little cousin?"**

**Then it struck me why this guy looked familiar. He had the same vicious sneer as some of the kids at Camp Half-Blood, the ones from cabin five.**

**"You're Clarisse's dad," I said. "Ares, god of war."**

"Dam proud of it" Ares said and Clarisse nodded.

"Ares! Watch your language!" Hera scolded.

"Sorry" Ares said and, again, didn't look at all sorry.

**Ares grinned and took off his shades. Where his eyes should've been, there was only fire, empty sockets glowing with miniature nuclear explosions. "That's right, punk. I heard you broke Clarisse's spear."**

**"She was asking for it."**

Clarisse glared at the Son of the Sea God.

**"Probably. That's cool. I don't fight my kids' fights, you know? What I'm here for-I heard you were in town. I got a little proposition for you."**

"This is why I hate you" Annabeth said "your preposition."

**The waitress came back with heaping trays of food-cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, and chocolate shakes.**

Herems and Apollo were pratically drooling.

"I'm hungry" Travis and Connor complained.

Hera sighed and waved her hand.

Platters of small finger sandwiches and lemonade appeared on the table.

Apollo,Hermes, Travis and Connor all grabbed a sandwich.

**Ares handed her a few gold drachmas.**

**She looked nervously at the coins. "But, these aren't…"**

**Ares pulled out his huge knife and started cleaning his fingernails. "Problem, sweetheart?"**

"Ares" Zeus warned.

"Yes father?" Ares asked innocently.

"You know we don't threaten mortals...especially with huge knives" Zeus said.

"Yes Father" Ares grumbled.

**The waitress swallowed, then left with the gold.**

**"You can't do that," I told Ares. "You can't just threaten people with a knife."**

Zeus glared at Ares, who shrunk down in his seat.

**Ares laughed. "Are you kidding? I love this country. Best place since Sparta. Don't you carry a weapon, punk? You should. Dangerous world out there. Which brings me to my proposition. I need you to do me a favor."**

**"What favor could I do for a god?"**

"No! You were SUPPOSED to read that line with a fake happy voice!" Herems and Apollo complained.

Paul re-read the line in a fake happy voice.

"Better" Apollo and Hermes said.

Everyone laughed.

**"Something a god doesn't have time to do himself. It's nothing much. I left my shield at an abandoned water park here in town. I was going on a little … date with my girlfriend. We were interrupted. I left my shield behind. I want you to fetch it for me."**

Aphrodite blushed and whispered an apology in her husbands ear, he nodded and hugged her.

**"Why don't you go back and get it yourself?"**

"Do you have a death wish kid?" Ares asked.

"One would think" Percy replied and everyone laughed.

**The fire in his eye sockets glowed a little hotter.**

**"Why don't I turn you into a prairie dog and run you over with my Harley? Because I don't feel like it. A god is giving you an opportunity to prove yourself, Percy Jackson. Will you prove yourself a coward?" He leaned forward. "Or maybe you only fight when there's a river to dive into, so your daddy can protect you."**

It was Poseidon's turn to glare at the war god.

**I wanted to punch this guy, but somehow, I knew he was waiting for that. Ares's power was causing my anger. He'd love it if I attacked. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction.**

"Would've made my day" Ares said.

**"We're not interested," I said. "We've already got a quest."**

**Ares's fiery eyes made me see things I didn't want to see-blood and smoke and corpses on the battlefield. "I know all about your quest, punk. When that item was first stolen, Zeus sent his best out looking for it: Apollo, Athena, Artemis, and me, naturally. **

"Why you wouldn't send me, I don't know" Hermes said, checking his caduceus**.**

"Because I know you're always busy. Checking messages, delivering mail and packages" Zeus said "didn't want to add onto the strain."

Hermes' caduceus went off and Herems poofed out of the room to deliver the mail to the Olympians.

**If I couldn't sniff out a weapon that powerful …" He licked his lips, as if the very thought of the master bolt made him hungry.**

Zeus raised an eyebrow at his son.

**"Well … if I couldn't find it, you got no hope. Nevertheless, I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. Your dad and I go way back. **

"Right!" Poseidon scoffed.

**After all, I'm the one who told him my suspicions about old Corpse Breath."**

Now Hades glared at the war god.

**"You told him Hades stole the bolt?"**

**"Sure. Framing somebody to start a war. Oldest trick in the book. I recognized it immediately. In a way, you got me to thank for your little quest."**

"You want a war?" Hestia asked appauled.

"Aunt Hestia, I'm the god of war...I want war, just not Olympian war" Ares said.

**"Thanks," I grumbled.**

"Yeah" Poseidon said "thanks."

The god of war had all three of the Big Three glaring at him, death, ocean and sky. What happens when those mix? A sorry God of War.

**"Hey, I'm a generous guy. Just do my little job, and I'll help you on your way. I'll arrange a ride west for you and your friends."**

**"We're doing fine on our own."**

**"Yeah, right. No money. No wheels. No clue what you're up against. Help me out, and maybe I'll tell you something you need to know. Something about your mom."**

**"My mom?"**

"Oh Percy" Sally said "don't do anything stupid."

"Kinda hard mom...it's me" Percy said.

"True "Sally said and everyone laughed.

**He grinned. "That got your attention. The water park is a mile west on Delancy. You can't miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride."**

**"What interrupted your date?" I asked. "Something scare you off?"**

**Ares bared his teeth, but I'd seen his threatening look before on Clarisse. There was something false about it, almost like he was nervous.**

"As if I get nervous" Ares scoffed.

**"You're lucky you met me, punk, and not one of the other Olympians. They're not as forgiving of rudeness as I am. I'll meet you back here when you're done. Don't disappoint me."**

"Actually we ALL forgive rudeness except for Zeus" Hades said.

"Yeah..." Zeus said as he thought about that Roman he turned intoa storm cloud because the stupid _praetor _kept talking back to him and didn't refer to him as Lord.

**After that I must have fainted, or fall****en into a trance, because when I opened ****my eyes again, Ares was gone. I might've thought the conversation had been a dream, but Annabeth and Grover's expressions told me otherwise.**

**"Not good," Grover said. "Ares sought you out, Percy. This is not good."**

"Defianately not good" Poseidon said and Athena squeezed his hand for comfort.

**I stared out the window. The motorcycle had disappeared.**

**Did Ares really know something about my mom, or was he just playing with me? Now that he was gone, all the anger had drained out of me. I realized Ares must love to mess with people's emotions. That was his power-cranking up the passions so badly, they clouded your ability to think.**

**"It's probably some kind of trick," I said. "Forget Ares. Let's just go."**

**"We can't," Annabeth said. "Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't ignore the gods unless you want serious bad fortune. He wasn't kidding about turning you into a rodent."**

Ares's smile sent the people close to him 10 feet away.

**I looked down at my cheeseburger, which suddenly didn't seem so appetizing. "Why does he need us?"**

**"Maybe it's a problem that requires brains," Annabeth said. "Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes."**

"No it doesn't" Ares grumbled.

"Yeah it kinda does Ares" Athena said.

"Does not!" Ares protested "I could beat you in a fight anytime anywhere."

"How about now?" Athena asked.

"No" Ares said.

"Why?" Athena challenged.

"Because you'll beat me" Ares mumbled.

"Damn right I would" Athena said and leaned back into her comfortable spot and Poseidon put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head.

"Why doesn't she get in trouble for cussing?" Ares whined to his mother.

"Because she's not my child" Hera replied and shot a glare at Zeus but thought differently of it.

_"Metis was before me"_ she thought _"she wasn't a mortal he had and affair with." _**(A/N:Hera doesn't like the children of Zeus except Athena, Ares, Jason and Hephaestus because they are the results of affairs Zeus had. Metis was Zeus wife BEFORE Hera so no problem with the offspring, Hephaestus and Ares are hers, and you know why she likes Jason if you've read the HoO series)**

**"But this water park … he acted almost scared. What would make a war god run away like that?"**

**Annabeth and Grover glanced nervously at each other.**

**Annabeth said, "I'm afraid we'll have to find out."**

"Here we go" Poseidon, Athena and Sally said.

**The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time we found the water park. Judging from the sign, it once had been called WATERLAND, but now some of the letters were smashed out, so it read WAT R A D.**

**The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry waterslides and tubes and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the asphalt. With night coming on, the place looked sad and creepy.**

**"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date," I said, staring up at the barbed wire, "I'd hate to see what she looks like."**

"You are SOOO lucky I like messing with your love life so much I won't kill you" Aphrodite said.

**"Percy," Annabeth warned. "Be more respectful."**

**"Why? I thought you hated Ares."**

**"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental."**

"Am not!" Aphrodite scoffed.

"Are to" all the gods and goddesses said.

Aphrodite huffed and everyone else laughed.

**"You don't want to insult her looks," Grover added.**

**"Who is she? Echidna?"**

"Pushing it Jackson" Aphrodite said.

"Bad luck mate...she's really pissed off, she called you Jackson" Apollo said.

**"No, Aphrodite," Grover said, a little dreamily. "Goddess of love."**

**"I thought she was married to somebody," I said. "Hephaestus."**

Aphrodite blushed again and whispered another apology to her husband.

**"What's your point?" he asked.**

**"Oh." I suddenly felt the need to change the subject. "So how do we get in?"**

**"Maia!" Grover's shoes sprouted wings.**

"Maia" Hermes said.

**He flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, then stumbled to a landin****g on the opposite side. He dusted off his jeans, as if he'd planned the whole thing. "You guys coming?"**

Everyone laughed.

"Only you Goat Boy" Thalia said.

**Annabeth and I had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as we crawled over the top.**

**The shadows grew long as we walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?**

"Travis" Connor said.

"Yeah" Travis answered.

"I think I know why they went out of business" Connor said.

"Yeah the names suck" Travis replied.

"Who wants to go on a ride that says Head over Wedgie?" Connor asked.

"I don't know bro" Travis replied.

**No monsters came to get us. Nothing made the slightest noise.**

**We found a souvenir shop that had been left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards, and racks of-**

**"Clothes," Annabeth said. "Fresh clothes."**

**"Yeah," I said. "But you can't just-"**

**"Watch me."**

"We're so proud" Travis and Connor said and wiped a fake tear from their faces.

"Shut up you two" Annabeht said.

**She snatched an entire row of stuff of the racks and disappeared into the changing room. A few minutes later she came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt, and commemorative Waterland surf shoes. A Waterland backpack was slung over her shoulder, obviously stuffed with more goodies.**

**"What the heck." Grover shrugged. Soon, all three of us were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.**

**We continued searching for the Tunnel of Love. I got the feeling that the whole park was holding its breath. "So Ares and Aphrodite," I said, to keep my mind off the growing dark, "they have a thing going?"**

"Old gossip" Aphrodite said and waved her hand dismissiveley.

**"That's old gossip, Percy," Annabeth told me. "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."**

**"What about Aphrodite's husband?"**

**"Well, you know," she said. "Hephaestus. The blacksmith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus. So he isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands, and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?"**

**"She likes bikers."**

Aphrodite blushed again and everyone laughed.

**"Whatever."**

**"Hephaestus knows?"**

**"Oh sure," Annabeth said. "He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That's why they meet in out-of-the-way places, like …"**

**She stopped, looking straight ahead. "Like that."**

**In front of us was an empty pool that would've been awesome for skateboarding. It was at least fifty yards across and shaped like a bowl.**

"I would love to skatebaord there!" the Stolls said.

"Maybe later" Percy said.

**Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side from us, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. The sign above it read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!**

**Grover crept toward the edge. "Guys, look."**

**Marooned at the bottom of the pool was a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. In the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares's shield, a polished circle of bronze.**

**"This is too easy," I said. "So we just walk down there and get it?"**

**Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue.**

**"There's a Greek letter carved here," she said. "Eta. I wonder …"**

"My trap?" Hephaestus asked.

"Yeah" Annabeth said.

**"Grover," I said, "you smell any monsters?"**

**He sniffed the wind. "Nothing."**

**"Nothing-like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?"**

"Harsh" Piper said.

**Grover looked hurt. "I told you, that was underground."**

**"Okay, I'm sorry." I took a deep breath. "I'm going down there."**

**"I'll go with you." Grover didn't sound too enthusiastic, but I got the feeling he was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis.**

**"No," I told him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, a flying ace, remember? I'll be counting on you for backup, in case something goes wrong."**

**Grover puffed up his chest a little. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"**

"Don't ask that! It's Percy!" Thalia said.

"Hey!" Percy protested.

**"I don't know. Just a feeling. Annabeth, come with me-"**

Aphrodite raised an eyebrow knowingly as the Percabeth couple blushed.

**"Are you kidding?" She looked at me as if I'd just dropped from the moon. Her cheeks were bright red.**

**"What's the problem now?" I demanded.**

**"Me, go with you to the … the 'Thrill Ride of Love'? How embarrassing is that? What if solmebody saw me?"**

"Who's gonna see you?" Frank asked.

Annabeth shrugged.

**"Who's going to see you?" But my face was burning now, too. Leave it to a girl to make everything complicated. "Fine," I told her. "I'll do it myself." But when I started down the side of the pool, she followed me, muttering about how boys always messed things up.**

"They do" Artemis said.

"Hey!" the boys said.

"You know you love us!" Apollo said.

**We reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. I tried to imagine Ares and Aphrodite here, a couple of gods meeting in a junked-out amusement-park ride. Why? Then I noticed something I hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool, facing this spot. We could see ourselves no matter which direction we looked. That must be it. While Ares and Aphrodite were smooching with each other they could look at their favorite people: themselves.**

Ares and Aphrodite blushed.

**I picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable-rose, or mountain laurel. Something good. I smiled, a little dreamy, and was about to rub the scarf against my cheek when Annabeth ripped it out of my hand and stuffed it in her pocket. "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic."**

"Oh come on!" Aphrodite said.

**"What?"**

**"Just get the shield, Seaweed Brain, and let's get out of here."**

**The moment I touched the shield, I knew we were in trouble. My hand broke through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard. A cobweb, I thought, but then I looked at a strand of it on my palm and saw it was some kind of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A trip wire.**

**"Wait," Annabeth said.**

**"Too late."**

**"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap."**

"I think I know which one you're at" Hephaestus said "I am sorry daughter of Athena."

"It's okay" Annabeht said.

"What's it do?" Bekendorf and Leo asked.

"You'll see" Annabeth said.

**Noise erupted all around us, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine.**

**Grover yelled, "Guys!"**

**Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before I could suggest taking cover, they shot, but not at us. They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arcing over the pool and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk. Then smaller metallic threads started weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net.**

**"We have to get out," I said.**

"No duh" Thalia said.

**"Duh!" Annabeth said.**

"Annabeth agrees with me" Thalia said.

**I grabbed the shield and we ran, but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down.**

**"Come on!" Grover shouted.**

**He was trying to hold open a section of the net for us, but wherever he touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around his hands.**

**The Cupids' heads popped open. Out came video cameras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding us with illumination, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute … Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight …"**

"This is gonna be hilarious in the future!" Apollo and Hermes said.

**"Hephaestus!" Annabeth screamed. "I'm so stupid.' Eta is H.' He made this trap to catch his wife with Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!"**

**We'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic … things poured out.**

**Annabeth screamed.**

"What's got you so scared?" Thalia asked.

Annabeth shivered.

**It was an army of wind-up creepy-crawlies: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward us in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.**

**"Spiders!" Annabeth said. "Sp-sp-aaaah!"**

"Oh" Thalia said.

"You're afraid of spiders?" Hazel asked.

"Yeah...you know the story of Arachne?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah...Arachne, a mortal, said she was better that Athena at weaving, which Athena is the goddess of, and challenged the goddess to a weaving contest. When Arachne lost Athena turned her into a spider" Rachel said.

"Arachne's children, all spiders, have been taking revenge on Athena's children ever since, causing arachnaphobia in every child of Athena **(A/N:me too)**" Annabeth explained.

"So a demigod's fear is based on a situation or experience the parent had?" Piper asked.

"Yeah...Hephaestus children are..." Annabeth said but was cut off by Bekendorf.

"We're afraid of heights because of our father being thrown off Mount Olympus" Bekendorf said and eyed Hera.

"I'm afraid of confined places because they're the opposite of the sea. The sea is open, free and Wild" Percy said.

"Aphrodite kids are afraid of Cacophobia, its the fear of ugliness" Silena said and shuddered.

"Interesting" Jason said.

"I'm not afraid of being ugly" Piper said.

"Because you've never been ugly" Silena said.

"I'm not afraid of heights" Leo said "but I do have nightmares about falling."

"I'm actually afraid of heights" Thalia said and everyone looked at her weird.

"I know I know...you're dad is the king of the sky so how are you afraid...I just am okay?" Thalia said and everyone tunred to the book.

**I'd never seen her like this before. She fell backward in terror and almost got overwhelmed by the spider robots before I pulled her up and dragged her back toward the boat.**

**The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding us. I told myself they probably weren't programmed to kill, just corral us and bite us and make us look stupid. Then again, this was a trap meant for gods. And we weren't gods.**

"Might cause some issues" Hephaestus said and started tinkering with a peice of scrap metal.

**Annabeth and I climbed into the boat. I started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard. I yelled at Annabeth to help me, but she was too paralyzed to do much more than scream.**

"Sorry" Annabeth said.

**"Thirty, twenty-nine," called the loudspeaker.**

**The spiders started spitting out strands of metal thread, trying to tie us down. The strands were easy enough to break at first, but there were so many of them, and the spiders just kept coming. I kicked one away from Annabeth's leg and its pincers took a chunk out of my new surf shoe.**

**Grover hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge.**

**Think, I told myself. Think.**

"Don't hurt yourself" Thalia joked.

"Shut up" Percy said.

**The Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. We could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a million robot spiders.**

**"Fifteen, fourteen," the loudspeaker called.**

**Water, I thought. Where does the ride's water come from?**

**Then I saw them: huge water pipes behind the mirrors, where the spiders had come from. And up above the net, next to one of the Cupids, a glass-windowed booth that must be the controller's station.**

**"Grover!" I yelled. "Get into that booth! Find the 'on' switch!"**

**"But-"**

**"Do it!" It was a crazy hope, but it was our only chance. The spiders were all over the prow of the boat now. Annabeth was screaming her head off. I had to get us out of there.**

**Grover was in the controller's booth now, slamming away at the buttons.**

**"Five, four-"**

**Grover looked up at me hopelessly, raising his hands. He was letting me know that he'd pushed every button, but still nothing was happening.**

**I closed my eyes and thought about waves, rushing water, the Mississippi River. I felt a familiar tug in my gut. I tried to imagine that I was dragging the ocean all the way to Denver.**

Poseidon looked at Percy with pride.

**"Two, one, zero!"**

**Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. I pulled Annabeth into the seat next to me and fastened her seat belt just as the tidal wave slammed into our boat, over the top, whisking the spiders away and dousing us completely, but not capsizing us. The boat turned, lifted in the flood, and spun in circles around the whirlpool.**

**The water was full of short-circuiting spiders, some of them smashing against the pool's concrete wall with such force they burst.**

**Spotlights glared down at us. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus.**

"I can not wait to see this in the future!" Apollo said.

"Send us a copy" the demigods said.

Annabeth and Percy blushed.

**But I could only concentrate on controlling the boat. I willed it to ride the current, to keep away from the wall. Maybe it was my imagination, but the boat seemed to respond. At least, it didn't break into a million pieces. We spun around one last time, the water level now almost high enough to shred us against the metal net. Then the boat's nose turned toward the tunnel and we rocketed through into the darkness.**

**Annabeth and I held tight, both of us screaming as the boat shot curls and hugged corners and took forty-five-degree plunges past pictures of Romeo and Juliet and a bunch of other Valentine's Day stuff.**

"My favorite holiday" Aphrodite said.

**Then we were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through our hair as the boat barreled straight toward the exit.**

**If the ride had been in working order, we would've sailed off a ramp between the golden Gates of Love and splashed down safely in the exit pool. But there was a problem. The Gates of Love were chained. Two boats that had been washed out of the tunnel before us were now piled against the barricade-one submerged, the other cracked in half.**

**"Unfasten your seat belt," I yelled to Annabeth.**

**"Are you crazy?"**

"Yes" Percy said and everyone laughed.

**"Unless you want to get smashed to death." I strapped Ares's shield to my arm. "We're going to have to jump for it." My idea was simple and insane. As the boat struck, we would use its force like a springboard to jump the gate. I'd heard of people surviving car crashes that way, getting thrown thirty or forty feet away from an accident. With luck, we would land in the pool.**

"That plan might work Perseus" Athena said.

"She's calling you Perseus now" Annabeth whispered to Percy.

"I know...we're almost there" Percy said.

**Annabeth seemed to understand. She gripped my hand as the gates got closer.**

**"On my mark," I said.**

**"No! On my mark!"**

**"What?"**

**"Simple physics!" she yelled. "Force times the trajectory angle-"**

"English please!" the Stolls said.

**"Fine.'" I shouted. "On your mark!"**

**She hesitated … hesitated … then yelled, "Now!"**

**Crack!**

**Annabeth was right.**

"When am I not?" Annabeth said.

**If we'd jumped when I thought we should've, we would've crashed into the gates. She got us maximum lift.**

**Unfortunately, that was a little more than we needed. Our boat smashed into the pileup and we were thrown into the air, straight over the gates, over the pool, and down toward solid asphalt.**

**Something grabbed me from behind.**

**Annabeth yelled, "Ouch!"**

**Grover!**

"Wooooooo" the demigods cheered.

**In midair, he had grabbed me by the shirt, and Annabeth by the arm, and was trying to pull us out of a crash landing, but Annabeth and I had all the momentum.**

**"You're too heavy!" Grover said. "We're going down!"**

**We spiraled toward the ground, Grover doing his best to slow the fall.**

**We smashed into a photo-board, Grover's head going straight into the hole where tourists would put their faces, pretending to be Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale. Annabeth and I tumbled to the ground, banged up but alive. Ares's shield was still on my arm.**

"That would have sucked if you lost it" Travis said.

**Once we caught our breath, Annabeth and I got Grover out of the photo-board and thanked him for saving our lives. I looked back at the Thrill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding. Our boat had been smashed to pieces against the gates.**

**A hundred yards away, at the entrance pool, the Cupids were still filming. The statues had swiveled so that their cameras were trained straight on us, the spotlights in our faces.**

**"Show's over!" I yelled. "Thank you! Good night!"**

"Everyone laughed.

"Only you Perce" Nico said.

**The Cupids turned back to their original positions. The lights shut off. The park went quiet and dark again, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's exit pool. I wondered if Olympus had gone to a commercial break, or if our ratings had been any good.**

"Most likely your ratings were through the roof" Apollo said.

**I hated being teased. I hated being tricked. And I had plenty of experience handling bullies who liked to do that stuff to me. I hefted the shield on my arm and turned to my friends. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."**

"That's it" Paul said "who's next?"

"I am!" Rachel said and took the book and read.

* * *

**again sorry about the latness. my computer wouldn't connect to the internet...i blame Hermes...my dad went into the hospital...I blame Apollo...and christmas! I balme no one for this one.**

**check out my new story, Gods High School is Hard! and ill upload the pothena story soon to. check out my random poll. **

**Okay...if you can tell me the Great Prophecy in a review I will dedicate the next chapter to ya.**

**You'll have to swear on the River Styx you did NOT use a book!**

**"A half-blood of the eldest gods..."**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	21. We Take a Zebra to Vegas

**okay hey everyone! sorry about the lateness of the chapter! i was grounded and what not. **

**this chapter is dedicated to multiple people...**

**First to DeathlyHallowsschoolgirl**(i have them memorized too)** Nicoannoyspercy, Gallifrey Dweller, Louisa4533 **(btw nice sign off;)),** Jade-Queen of Fantasy, F.A.L.T.U **(what does that stand for?),** Minstrel'sAzureWeb and MrsEDarcy** (you've got a lot of chapters)** for correctly staing the great prophecy for the PJO books AND swearing on the river styx they did it from memory! *applause* congrats. for those who answered the prophecy but their name was not mentioned...you either missed a line or two, misplaced lines, used a wrong word or did not swear on the styx you did it from memory. sorry:(**

**and second to AmandaDaughterOfHades for being the 200th reviewer! **

**200 reviews! you guys are freaking awesome.**

**also a shout out to Percabethlvrknowsall...i love love love you stories and i am suggesting you to all of my readers! she is like an amazing writer and you all should read her stories. she has baby percy in her reading book series! i love it!**

**i just want to say... for now on i am doing small dedications (ex. 300th reviewer gets a chapter) not contests like this previous one.**

**wow! talk about long! um...i have a poll to see which other couples you all want in this story.**

**i will comment on reviews staring this chaoter too! so your review might be posted on my author's note and if you dont want that then please say if you dont.**

**puzzlingnerd57**

**"This is hilarious! You should do all the way up to Mark of Athena someday"  
~i plan to have up to that book by the time HoH come out! cross out fingers.**

***note continued on bottom***

* * *

**"We take a zebra to Vegas," **Rachel read.

"Why a zebra?" Apollo asked.

"You'll see" Percy said and winked as everyone groaned, they were getting tired of hearing those words.

**The war god was waiting for us in the diner parking lot.**

**"Well, well," he said. "You didn't get yourself killed."**

**"You knew it was a trap," I said.**

**Ares gave me a wicked grin. "Bet that crippled blacksmith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. You looked good on TV."**

"You're a jerk" Hera said.

**I shoved his shield at him. "You're a jerk."**

"Great...I'm thinking like him" Hera said.

"Again, I ask, How are you still alive?" Jason asked.

Percy thought about it and shrugged.

"I honestly have no idea"

**Annabeth and Grover caught their breath.**

**Ares grabbed the shield and spun it in the air like pizza dough. It changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back.**

**"See that truck over there?" He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. "That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."**

**The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which I could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.**

"You're kidding" Nico said.

**I said, "You're kidding."**

"Now Corpse-Breath is thinking like Kelp-Head" Thalia joked.

"Hey!" the sons of Poseidon and Hades yelled.

Thalia was soaked with freezing Atlantic water.

Everyone was still laughing at Thalia's comment.

**Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched. "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job."**

**He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to me.**

Athena was thinking.

_"Don't trust the gifts? Are these it?" _she thought and sighed and Poseidon kissed the top of her head.

**Inside were fresh clothes for all of us, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuf Oreos.**

"Yum...double stuffed..." the Stolls said.

**I said, "I don't want your lousy-"**

**"Thank you, Lord Ares," Grover interrupted, giving me his best red-alert warning look. "Thanks a lot."**

**I gritted my teeth. It was probably a deadly insult to refuse something from a god, but I didn't want anything that Ares had touched. Reluctantly, I slung the backpack over my shoulder. I knew my anger was being caused by the war god's presence, but I was still itching to punch him in the nose. He reminded me of every bully I'd ever faced: Nancy Bobofit, Clarisse, Smelly Gabe, sarcastic teachers-every jerk who'd called me stupid in school or laughed at me when I'd gotten expelled.**

"Jerks" someone said.

**I looked back at the diner, which had only a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served us dinner was watching nervously out the window, like she was afraid Ares might hurt us. She dragged the fry cook out from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of us.**

"Fantastic!" Poseidon grumbled.

**Great, I thought. We'll make the papers again tomorrow.**

**I imagined the headline: TWELVE-YEAR-OLD OUTLAW BEATS UP DEFENSELESS BIKER.**

Everyone chuckled...gotta love sarcastic Percy.

**"You owe me one more thing," I told Ares, trying to keep my voice level. "You promised me information about my mother."**

**"You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle. "She's not dead."**

**The ground seemed to spin beneath me. "What do you mean?"**

No one said anything because Poseidon had given it away chapters ago.

**"I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept."**

**"Kept. Why?"**

**"You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."**

**"Nobody's controlling me."**

"Well..." someone said but I couldn't pin-point the person.

**He laughed. "Oh yeah? See you around, kid."**

**I balled up my fists. "You're pretty smug, Lord Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues."**

"Can I punch him now?" Ares asked.

"NO!" Poseidon, Sally, Annabeth, Aphrodite, Athena, and a few others said as the God of War slouched.

**Behind his sunglasses, fire glowed. I felt a hot wind in my hair. "We'll meet again, Percy Jackson. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back."**

**He revved his Harley, then roared off down Delancy Street.**

**Annabeth said, "That was not smart, Percy."**

"I'm not very good at being smart" Percy said.

**"I don't care."**

**"You don't want a god as your enemy. Especially not that god."**

"Ares chuckled evily.

**"Hey, guys," Grover said. "I hate to interrupt, but …"**

**He pointed toward the diner. At the register, the last two customers were paying their check, two men in identical black coveralls, with a white logo on their backs that matched the one on the KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL truck.**

"Wasn't kindness" Grover grumbled and Percy and Annabeht looked a little pissed.

**"If we're taking the zoo express," Grover said, "we need to hurry."**

**I didn't like it, but we had no better option. Besides, I'd seen enough of Denver.**

**We ran across the street and climbed in the back of the big rig, closing the doors behind us.**

**The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was like the world's biggest pan of kitty litter.**

"Ewwwww" a few girls said.

Others just wrinkled their noses.

**The trailer was dark inside until I uncapped Anaklusmos. The blade cast a faint bronze light over a very sad scene. Sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three of the most pathetic zoo animals I'd ever beheld: a zebra, a male albino lion, and some weird antelope thing I didn't know the name for.**

**Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn't want to eat. The zebra and the antelope had each gotten a Styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. The zebra's mane was matted with chewing gum, like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time. The antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of his horns that read OVER THE HILL!**

Artemis glared at the book.

"Thats inhuman" Thalia said disgusted.

"I wanted to murder the drivers but Percy wouldn't let me" Grover said.

"I should have let him" Percy said.

**Apparently, nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around on soiled blankets, in a space way too small for him, panting from the stuffy heat of the trailer. He had flies buzzing around his pink eyes and his ribs showed through his white fur.**

"Awwwwwwwww" a few girls said.

Artemis continued to glare at the book in Rachel's hands.

**"This is kindness?" Grover yelled. "Humane zoo transport?"**

**He probably would've gone right back outside to beat up the truckers with his reed pipes, **

"You should have" Travis said.

"Yeah" everyone else said.

**and I would've helped him,**

"Nice boy" Artemis said.

**but just then the trucks engine roared to life, the trailer started shaking, and we were forced to sit down or fall down.**

**We huddled in the corner on some mildewed feed sacks, trying to ignore the smell and the heat and the flies. Grover talked to the animals in a series of goat bleats, but they just stared at him sadly. Annabeth was in favor of breaking the cages and freeing them on the spot, but I pointed out it wouldn't do much good until the truck stopped moving. Besides, I had a feeling we might look a lot better to the lion than those turnips.**

"I'm sure you did." Travis said.

**I found a water jug and refilled their bowls, then used Anaklusmos to drag the mismatched food out of their cages. I gave the meat to the lion and the turnips to the zebra and the antelope.**

"It's nice that your helping them" Artemis said.

**Grover calmed the antelope down, while Annabeth used her knife to cut the balloon off his horn. She wanted to cut the gum out of the zebra's mane, too, but we decided that would be too risky with the truck bumping around. We told Grover to promise the animals we'd help them more in the morning, then we settled in for night.**

**Grover curled up on a turnip sack; Annabeth opened our bag of Double Stuf Oreos and nibbled on one halfheartedly; I tried to cheer myself up by concentrating on the fact that we were halfway to Los Angeles. Halfway to our destination. It was only June fourteenth. The solstice wasn't until the twenty-first. We could make it in plenty of time.**

"You probably just jinxed it!" Clarisse said.

**On the other hand, I had no idea what to expect next. The gods kept toying with me. At least Hephaestus had the decency to be honest about it-he'd put up cameras and advertised me as entertainment. But even when the cameras weren't rolling, I had a feeling my quest was being watched. I was a source of amusement for the gods.**

"Probably" Zeus said and the other gods chuckled slightly.

**"Hey," Annabeth said, "I'm sorry for freaking out back at the water park, Percy."**

**"That's okay."**

**"It's just…" She shuddered. "Spiders."**

**"Because of the Arachne story," I guessed. "She got turned into a spider for challenging your mom to a weaving contest, right?"**

"At least he knew something" Thalia said.

**Annabeth nodded. "Arachne's children have been taking revenge on the children of Athena ever since. If there's a spider within a mile of me, it'll find me. I hate the creepy little things. Anyway, I owe you."**

**"We're a team, remember?" I said. "Besides, Grover did the fancy flying."**

**I thought he was asleep, but he mumbled from the corner, "I was pretty amazing, wasn't I?"**

Everyone laughed.

**Annabeth and I laughed.**

**She pulled apart an Oreo, handed me half. "In the Iris message … did Luke really say nothing?"**

**I munched my cookie and thought about how to answer. The conversation via rainbow had bothered me all evening. "Luke said you and he go way back. He also said Grover wouldn't fail this time. Nobody would turn into a pine tree."**

"Brought it up again" Thalia said.

"Sorry" Percy said.

**In the dim bronze light of the sword blade, it was hard to read their expressions.**

**Grover let out a mournful bray.**

**"I should've told you the truth from the beginning." His voice trembled. "I thought if you knew what a failure I was, you wouldn't want me along."**

"You are NOT a failure!" all the greek demigods, minus Piper and Leo, argued.

**"You were the satyr who tried to rescue Thalia, the daughter of Zeus."**

**He nodded glumly.**

**"And the other two half-bloods Thalia befriended, the ones who got safely to camp …" I looked at Annabeth. "That was you and Luke, wasn't it?"**

"How'd you find that out so easily?" Apollo asked.

Percy shrugged.

Annabeth, Grover, Thalai and Luke all had sad looks on their faces.

**She put down her Oreo, uneaten. "Like you said, Percy, a seven-year-old half-blood wouldn't have made it very far alone. Athena guided me toward help. Thalia was twelve. Luke was fourteen. They'd both run away from home, like me. They were happy to take me with them. They were … amazing monster-fighters, even without training. We traveled north from Virginia without any real plans, fending off monsters for about two weeks before Grover found us."**

**"I was supposed to escort Thalia to camp," he said, sniffling. "Only Thalia. I had strict orders from Chiron: don't do anything that would slow down the rescue. We knew Hades was after her, see, but I couldn't just leave Luke and Annabeth by themselves. I thought … I thought I could lead all three of them to safety. It was my fault the Kindly Ones caught up with us. I froze. I got scared on the way back to camp and took some wrong turns. If I'd just been a little quicker …"**

**"Stop it," Annabeth said. "No one blames you. Thalia didn't blame you either."**

"Of course I don't blame him! It was my choice!" Thalia said.

**"She sacrificed herself to save us," he said miserably, "Her death was my fault. The Council of Cloven Elders said so."**

"Don't listen to those stupid, old, fat..." Apollo said before Dionysus cleared his throat.

"Brother, have you even considered that I am on the Council of Cloven Elders?" the wine god asked the sun god.

"Minus you and Chiron" Apollo said.

**"Because you wouldn't leave two other half-bloods behind?" I said. "That's not fair."**

**"Percy's right," Annabeth said. "I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for you, Grover. Neither would Luke. We don't care what the council says."**

**Grover kept sniffling in the dark. "It's just my luck. I'm the lamest satyr ever, and I find the two most powerful half-bloods of the century, Thalia and Percy."**

"Your not lame. You're the one that found all the big three kids!" Percy said.

"And all three rescue missions went wrong!" Grover grumbled "I lost Percy, Thalia got turned into a tree, and Annabeth was taken."

"My fault!" the three demigods mentioned said.

Grover grumbled something that no one could make out.

**"You're not lame," Annabeth insisted. "You've got more courage than any satyr I've ever met. Name one other who would dare go to the Underworld. I bet Percy is really glad you're here right now."**

**She kicked me in the shin.**

**"Yeah," I said, which I would've done even without the kick.**

**"**Oops" Annabeth said "sorry."

"Don't matter" Percy said.

**"It's not luck that you found Thalia and me, Grover. You've got the biggest heart of any satyr ever. You're a natural searcher. That's why you'll be the one who finds Pan."**

"That was very nice of you Percy" Athena said.

"Hey! She called you Percy! We're in the clear!" Ananbeth said and Percy kissed her.

**I heard a deep, satisfied sigh. I waited for Grover to say something, but his breathing only got heavier. When the sound turned to snoring, I realized he'd fallen sleep.**

**"How does he do that?" I marveled.**

"All boys do that" Artemis said.

"Yeah we do" a few boys agreed while the others argued that they didn't.

**"I don't know," Annabeth said. "But that was really a nice thing you told him."**

**"I meant it."**

**We rode in silence for a few miles, bumping around on the feed sacks. The zebra munched a turnip. The lion licked the last of the hamburger meat off his lips and looked at me hopefully.**

**Annabeth rubbed her necklace like she was thinking deep, strategic thoughts.**

**"That pine-tree bead," I said. "Is that from your first year?"**

**She looked. She hadn't realized what she was doing.**

**"Yeah," she said. "Every August, the counselors pick the most important event of the summer, and they paint it on that year's beads. I've got Thalia's pine tree, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress-now that was a weird summer…."**

"Yeah that was a weird summer" chiron said and the demigods who knew what they were talking about laughed and nodded.

**"And the college ring is your father's?"**

**"That's none of your-" She stopped herself. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."**

**"You don't have to tell me."**

**"No … it's okay." She took a shaky breath. "My dad sent it to me folded up in a letter, two summers ago. The ring was, like, his main keepsake from Athena. He wouldn't have gotten through his doctoral program at Harvard without her…. That's a long story. Anyway, he said he wanted me to have it. He apologized for being a jerk, said he loved me and missed me. He wanted me to come home and live with him."**

**"That doesn't sound so bad."**

**"Yeah, well… the problem was, I believed him. I tried to go home for that school year, but my stepmom was the same as ever. She didn't want her kids put in danger by living with a freak. Monsters attacked. We argued. Monsters attacked. We argued. I didn't even make it through winter break. I called Chiron and came right back to Camp Half-Blood."**

**"You think you'll ever try living with your dad again?"**

**She wouldn't meet my eyes. "Please. I'm not into self-inflicted pain."**

Athena looked concerned as Percy hugged his girlfriend closer.

**"You shouldn't give up," I told her. "You should write him a letter or something."**

**"Thanks for the advice," she said coldly, "but my father's made his choice about who he wants to live with."**

"Harsh" Travis said.

"He was trying to help" Connor said.

"I know," Annabeth said "sorry."

Percy smiled and took her hand.

**We passed another few miles of silence.**

**"So if the gods fight," I said, "will things line up the way they did with the Trojan War? Will it be Athena versus Poseidon?"**

**She put her head against the backpack Ares had given us, and closed her eyes. "I don't know what my mom will do. I just know I'll fight next to you."**

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" Aphrodite and Silena and Piper all cooed and Piper looked concerned.

"I get more like my sisters everyday" she mumbled.

**"Why?"**

**"Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?"**

"Are you sure that's it Annie?" Connor said.

"If you want to keep that tongue Stoll then I suggest you don't call me Annie again" a blushing Annabeth threatened.

Connor gulped and put his hands to his mouth.

**I couldn't think of an answer for that. Fortunately I didn't have to. Annabeth was asleep.**

**I had trouble following her example, with Grover snoring and an albino lion staring hungrily at me, but eventually I closed my eyes.**

**My nightmare started out as something I'd dreamed a million times before: I was being forced to take a standardized test while wearing a straitjacket. All the other kids were going out to recess, and the teacher kept saying, Come on, Percy. You're not stupid, are you? Pick up your pencil.**

**Then the dream strayed from the usual.**

**I looked over at the next desk and saw a girl sitting there, also wearing a straitjacket. She was my age, with unruly black, punk-style hair, dark eyeliner around her stormy green eyes, and freckles across her nose. Somehow, I knew who she was. She was Thalia, daughter of Zeus.**

"Does anyone else find it creepy that he got the description perfect, except the eyes, even though he's never seen me?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah..." a lot of people said.

**She struggled against the straitjacket, glared at me in frustration, and snapped, Well, Seaweed Brain? One of us has to get out of here.**

"Don't steal my nickname for him!" Annabeth said.

"Can I call him Kelp Head then?" Thalia asked.

Percy looked at Annabeth and began to shake his head as if to tell her 'no, please don't let her.'

Annabeth thought about it for a sec.

She finally nodded and Thalia grinned and Percy sighed.

**She's right, my dream-self thought. I'm going back to that cavern. I'm going to give Hades a piece of my mind.**

**The straitjacket melted off me. I fell through the classroom floor. The teacher's voice changed until it was cold and evil, echoing from the depths of a great chasm.**

**Percy Jackson, it said. Yes, the exchange went well, 1 see.**

**I was back in the dark cavern, spirits of the dead drifting around me. Unseen in the pit, the monstrous thing was speaking, but this time it wasn't addressing me. The numbing power of its voice seemed directed somewhere else.**

**And he suspects nothing? it asked.**

**Another voice, one I almost recognized, answered at my shoulder. Nothing, my lord. He is as ignorant as the rest.**

_"Luke" _few people thought.

**I looked over, but no one was there. The speaker was invisible.**

**Deception upon deception, the thing in the pit mused aloud. Excellent.**

**Truly, my lord, said the voice next to me, you are well-named the Crooked One. **

"Crooked One?" Hera asked.

"Who is taking orders from Kronos?" Zeus thundered.

All the demigods looked scared.

"When I find out..." Zeus said and the master bolt flashed into his hand and lightning flashed across the sky like veins running through one's body.

**But was it really necessary? I could have brought you what I stole directly -**

**You? the monster said in scorn. You have already shown your limits. You would have failed me completely had I not intervened.**

**But, my lord-**

**Peace, little servant. Our six months have bought us much. Zeus's anger has grown. Poseidon has played his most desperate card. Now we shall use it against him. Shortly you shall have the reward you wish, and your revenge. As soon as both items are delivered into my hands … but wait. He is here.**

**What? The invisible servant suddenly sounded tense. You summoned him, my lord?**

**No. The full force of the monsters attention was now pouring over me, freezing me in place. Blast his father's blood-he is too changeable, too unpredictable. The boy brought himself hither.**

"Who says hither?" Travis asked.

"No one" Connor said (**A/N: they're all still chitons...found out that thats the appropiate term for ancient dressing, not togas)**

**Impossible! the servant cried.**

**For a weakling such as you, perhaps, the voice snarled. Then its cold power turned back on me. So … you wish to dream of your quest, young half-blood? Then I will oblige.**

"Uh-oh" someone said.

**The scene changed.**

**I was standing in a vast throne room with black marble walls and bronze floors. The empty, horrid throne was made from human bones fused together. Standing at the foot of the dais was my mother, frozen in shimmering golden light, her arms outstretched.**

**I tried to step toward her, but my legs wouldn't move. I reached for her, only to realize that my hands were withering to bones. Grinning skeletons in Greek armor crowded around me, draping me with silk robes, wreathing my head with laurels that smoked with Chimera poison, burning into my scalp.**

**The evil voice began to laugh. Hail, the conquering hero!**

**I woke with a start.**

"That was terrible" Connor said and the others agreed.

**Grover was shaking my shoulder. "The truck's stopped," he said. "We think they're coming to check on the animals."**

**"Hide!" Annabeth hissed.**

**She had it easy. She just put on her magic cap and disappeared. Grover and I had to dive behind feed sacks and hope we looked like turnips.**

"you're a cheater Annabeth" Percy said and Annabeth smirked.

**The trailer doors creaked open. Sunlight and heat poured in.**

**"Man!" one of the truckers said, waving his hand in front of his ugly nose. "I wish I hauled appliances." He climbed inside and poured some water from a jug into the animals' dishes.**

**"You hot, big boy?" he asked the lion, then splashed the rest of the bucket right in the lion's face.**

Artemis glared at the book while everyone else looked murderous.

**The lion roared in indignation.**

**"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man said.**

**Next to me, under the turnip sacks, Grover tensed. For a peace-loving herbivore, he looked downright murderous.**

**The trucker threw the antelope a squashed-looking Happy Meal bag. He smirked at the zebra. "How ya doin', Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!"**

**The zebra, wild-eyed with fear, looked straight at me.**

**There was no sound, but as clear as day, I heard it say: Free me, lord. Please.**

"He's gone off the deep end" Leo said.

"No it's a type of horse...I can talk to horses" Percy said.

**I was too stunned to react.**

**There was a loud knock, knock, knock on the side of the trailer.**

**The trucker inside with us yelled, "What do you want, Eddie?"**

**A voice outside-it must've been Eddie's-shouted back, "Maurice? What'd ya say?"**

**"What are you banging for?"**

**Knock, knock, knock.**

**Outside, Eddie yelled, "What banging?"**

**Our guy Maurice rolled his eyes and went back outside, cursing at Eddie for being an idiot.**

**A second later, Annabeth appeared next to me. She must've done the banging to get Maurice out of the trailer. She said, "This transport business can't be legal."**

"It's not" Artemis gripped her bow tightly debating whether to shoot these stupid mortals.

**"No kidding," Grover said. He paused, as if listening. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers!"**

**That's right, the zebra's voice said in my mind.**

**"We've got to free them!" Grover said. He and Annabeth both looked at me, waiting for my lead.**

**I'd heard the zebra talk, but not the lion. Why? Maybe it was another learning disability … I could only understand zebras? Then I thought: horses. What had Annabeth said about Poseidon creating horses? Was a zebra close enough to a horse? Was that why I could understand it?**

"Yup!" Poseidon smirked.

"Does that mean that other demigods can understand what their immortal's parents animal?" Leo asked.

"I can understand owls" Annabeth said.

"Any type of Dog" Clarisse said.

"Birds except doves" Thalia and Jason said.

"Doves are ours" Silena said gesturing to Piper.

"All animals" Gorver said.

**The zebra said, Open my cage, lord. Please. I'll be fine after that.**

**Outside, Eddie and Maurice were still yelling at each other, but I knew they'd be coming inside to torment the animals again any minute. I grabbed Riptide and slashed the lock off the zebra's cage.**

**The zebra burst out. It turned to me and bowed. Thank you, lord.**

**Grover held up his hands and said something to the zebra in goat talk, like a blessing.**

**Just as Maurice was poking his head back inside to check out the noise, the zebra leaped over him and into the street. There was yelling and screaming and cars honking. We rushed to the doors of the trailer in time to see the zebra galloping down a wide boulevard lined with hotels and casinos and neon signs. We'd just released a zebra in Las Vegas.**

People laughed.

**Maurice and Eddie ran after it, with a few policemen running after them, shouting, "Hey! You need a permit for that!"**

"I think I might visit these doouch-bags in jail in the future" Artemis growled.

**"Now would be a good time to leave," Annabeth said.**

**"The other animals first," Grover said.**

**I cut the locks with my sword. Grover raised his hands and spoke the same goat-blessing he'd used for the zebra.**

**"Good luck," I told the animals. The antelope and the lion burst out of their cages and went off together into the streets.**

**Some tourists screamed. Most just backed off and took pictures, probably thinking it was some kind of stunt by one of the casinos.**

**"Will the animals be okay?" I asked Grover. "I mean, the desert and all-"**

**"Don't worry," he said. "I placed a satyr's sanctuary on them."**

**"Meaning?"**

**"Meaning they'll reach the wild safely," he said. "They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they need until they find a safe place to live."**

**"Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?" I asked.**

**"It only works on wild animals."**

"So only Percy?" Thalia joked.

"No boys in general" Artemis said.

"HEY!" all the boys protested.

"You know you love us sis!" Apollo said.

**"So it would only affect Percy," Annabeth reasoned.**

Thalia got up and hugged Annabeth.

"I love you!" she said.

**"Hey!" I protested.**

**"Kidding," she said. "Come on. Let's get out of this filthy truck."**

**We stumbled out into the desert afternoon. It was a hundred and ten degrees, easy, and we must've looked like deep-fried vagrants, but everybody was too interested in the wild animals to pay us much attention.**

**We passed the Monte Carlo and the MGM. We passed pyramids, a pirate ship, and the Statue of Liberty, which was a pretty small replica, but still made me homesick.**

**I wasn't sure what we were looking for. Maybe just a place to get out of the heat for a few minutes, find a sandwich and a glass of lemonade, make a new plan for getting west.**

**We must have taken a wrong turn, because we found ourselves at a dead end, standing in front of the Lotus Hotel and Casino. **

Nico groaned and Bianca widedned her eyes.

"Is that..." she asked.

"Yeah" Nico said.

Bianca nodded.

**The entrance was a huge neon flower, the petals lighting up and blinking. No one was going in or out, but the glittering chrome doors were open, spilling out air-conditioning that smelled like flowers-lotus blossom, maybe. I'd never smelled one, so I wasn't sure.**

**The doorman smiled at us. "Hey, kids. You look tired. You want to come in and sit down?"**

**I'd learned to be suspicious, the last week or so. I figured anybody might be a monster or a god. You just couldn't tell. But this guy was normal. One look at him, and I could see. Besides, I was so relieved to hear somebody who sounded sympathetic that I nodded and said we'd love to come in. Inside, we took one look around, and Grover said, "Whoa."**

**The whole lobby was a giant game room. And I'm not talking about cheesy old Pac-Man games or slot machines. There was an indoor waterslide snaking around the glass elevator, which went straight up at least forty floors. There was a climbing wall on the side of one building, and an indoor bungee-jumping bridge. There were virtual-reality suits with working laser guns. And hundreds of video games, each one the size of a widescreen TV. Basically, you name it, this place had it. There were a few other kids playing, but not that many. No waiting for any of the games. There were waitresses and snack bars all around, serving every kind of food you can imagine.**

"Come on bro we're totally going there" Connor said and dragged Travis out of his seat by his arm as Katie protested.

"Trust me...you DON'T want to go there" Percy said and Nico nodded.

"Fine" the borhters said and went back to their seats.

Travis put his arm around Katie who snuggled closer to him.

**"Hey!" a bellhop said. At least I guessed he was a bellhop. He wore a white-and-yellow Hawaiian shirt with lotus designs, shorts, and flip-flops. "Welcome to the Lotus Casino. Here's your room key."**

**I stammered, "Um, but…"**

**"No, no," he said, laughing. "The bill's taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go on up to the top floor, loom 4001. If you need anything, like extra bubbles for the hot tub, or skeet targets for the shooting range, or whatever, just call the front desk. Here are your LotusCash cards. They work in the restaurants and on all the games and rides."**

"Monsters?" Athena asked.

"Of the sort" Percy said.

Athena sighed and snuggled closer to Poseidon as he kissed the top of her head.

**He handed us each a green plastic credit card.**

**I knew there must be some mistake. Obviously he thought we were some millionaire's kids. But I took the card and said, "How much is on here?"**

**His eyebrows knit together. "What do you mean?"**

**"I mean, when does it run out of cash?"**

**He laughed. "Oh, you're making a joke. Hey, that's cool. Enjoy your stay."**

**We took the elevator upstairs and checked out our room. It was a suite with three separate bedrooms and a bar stocked with candy, sodas, and chips. A hotline to room service. Fluffy towels and water beds with feather pillows. A big-screen television with satellite and high-speed Internet. The balcony had its own hot tub, and sure enough, there was a skeet-shooting machine and a shotgun, so you could launch clay pigeons right out over the Las Vegas skyline and plug them with your gun. I didn't see how that could be legal, but I thought it was pretty cool. The view over the Strip and the desert was amazing, though I doubted we'd ever find time to look at the view with a room like this.**

Everyone, except those who have been there and the gods, looked at the book with longing.

"I really want to go there" a demigod said.

"I got here all the time" Hermes said and Apollo nodded.

"Take us with you next time!" a few demigods wailed.

"No can do...sorry" Apollo said as the demigods sulked.

**"Oh, goodness," Annabeth said. "This place is …" **

**"Sweet," Grover said. "Absolutely sweet."**

**There were clothes in the closet, and they fit me. I frowned, thinking that this was a little strange.**

**I threw Ares's backpack in the trash can. Wouldn't need that anymore. When we left, I could just charge a new one at the hotel store.**

**I took a shower, which felt awesome after a week of grimy travel. I changed clothes, ate a bag of chips, drank three Cokes, and came out feeling better than I had in a long time. In the back of my mind, some small problem kept nagging me. I'd had a dream or something … I needed to talk to my friends. But I was sure it could wait.**

Athena's eyes widened.

"The lair of the Lotus eaters!" she said.

"Maybe" Percy said.

**I came out of the bedroom and found that Annabeth and Grover had also showered and changed clothes. Grover was eating potato chips to his heart's content, while Annabeth cranked up the National Geographic Channel.**

**"All those stations," I told her, "and you turn on National Geographic. Are you insane?"**

"It's interesting" a few people said.

**"It's interesting."**

**"I feel good," Grover said. "I love this place."**

**Without his even realizing it, the wings sprouted out of his shoes and lifted him a foot off the ground, then back down again.**

**"So what now?" Annabeth asked. "Sleep?"**

**Grover and I looked at each other and grinned. We both held up our green plastic LotusCash cards.**

**"Play time," I said.**

**I couldn't remember the last time I had so much fun. I came from a relatively poor family. Our idea of a splurge was eating out at Burger King and renting a video. A five-star Vegas hotel? Forget it.**

**I bungee-jumped the lobby five or six times, did the waterslide, snowboarded the artificial ski slope, and played virtual-reality laser tag and FBI sharpshooter. I saw Grover a few times, going from game to game. He really liked the reverse hunter thing-where the deer go out and shoot the rednecks. I saw Annabeth playing trivia games and other brainiac stuff. They had this huge 3-D sim game where you build your own city, and you could actually see the holographic buildings rise on the display board. I didn't think much of it, but Annabeth loved it.**

Annabeth missed that game.

**I'm not sure when I first realized something was wrong.**

**Probably, it was when I noticed the guy standing next to me at VR sharpshooters. He was about thirteen, I guess, but his clothes were weird. I thought he was some Elvis impersonator's son. He wore bell-bottom jeans and a red T-shirt with black piping, and his hair was permed and gelled like a New Jersey girl's on homecoming night.**

"That's not an Elvis impersonator...it's an Apollo impersonator!" Artemis said.

"Hey!" Apollo said after he finished combing his hair back.

**We played a game of sharpshooters together and he said, "Groovy, man. Been here two weeks, and the games keep getting better and better."**

"Groovy?" someone asked.

"It's possible you could have seen me or Bianca here" Nico said.

**Groovy?**

**Later, while we were talking, I said something was "sick," and he looked at me kind of startled, as if he'd never heard the word used that way before.**

**He said his name was Darrin, but as soon as I started asking him questions he got bored with me and started to go back to the computer screen.**

**I said, "Hey, Darrin?"**

**"What?"**

**"What year is it?"**

**He frowned at me. "In the game?"**

**"No. In real life."**

**He had to think about it. "1977."**

"Having second thoughts about wanting to go there" Travis said.

"It's different if you ahve a god with you" Apollo said.

**"No," I said, getting a little scared. "Really."**

**"Hey, man. Bad vibes. I got a game happening."**

**After that he totally ignored me.**

**I started talking to people, and I found it wasn't easy. They were glued to the TV screen, or the video game, or their food, or whatever. I found a guy who told me it was 1985. Another guy told me it was 1993. They all claimed they hadn't been in here very long, a few days, a few weeks at most. They didn't really know and they didn't care.**

**Then it occurred to me: how long had I been here? It seemed like only a couple of hours, but was it?**

**I tried to remember why we were here. We were going to Los Angeles. We were supposed to find the entrance to the Underworld. My mother … for a scary second, I had trouble remembering her name. Sally. Sally Jackson. I had to find her. I had to stop Hades from causing World War III.**

**I found Annabeth still building her city.**

**"Come on," I told her. "We've got to get out of here."**

**No response.**

**I shook her. "Annabeth?"**

**She looked up, annoyed. "What?**

**"We need to leave."**

**"Leave? What are you talking about? I've just got the towers-"**

**"This place is a trap."**

**She didn't respond until I shook her again. "What?"**

**"Listen. The Underworld. Our quest!"**

**"Oh, come on, Percy. Just a few more minutes."**

**"Annabeth, there are people here from 1977. Kids who have never aged. You check in, and you stay forever."**

**"So?" she asked. "Can you imagine a better place?"**

"I would expect Kelp Head to say that, not you Annabeth!" Thalai said using he rnew nickname.

**I grabbed her wrist and yanked her away from the game.**

**"Hey!" She screamed and hit me, but nobody else even bothered looking at us. They were too busy.**

**I made her look directly in my eyes. I said, "Spiders. Large, hairy spiders."**

Annabeth and Athena shivered.

**That jarred her. Her vision cleared. "Oh my gods," she said. "How long have we-"**

**"I don't know, but we've got to find Grover."**

**We went searching, and found him still playing Virtual Deer Hunter.**

**"Grover!" we both shouted.**

**He said, "Die, human! Die, silly polluting nasty person!"**

A few people chuckled.

**"Grover!"**

**He turned the plastic gun on me and started clicking, as if I were just another image from the screen.**

**I looked at Annabeth, and together we took Grover by the arms and dragged him away. His flying shoes sprang to life and started tugging his legs in the other direction as he shouted, "No! I just got to a new level! No!"**

**The Lotus bellhop hurried up to us. "Well, now, are you ready for your platinum cards?"**

**"We're leaving," I told him.**

**"Such a shame," he said, and I got the feeling that he really meant it, that we'd be breaking his heart if we went. "We just added an entire new floor full of games for platinum-card members."**

**He held out the cards, and I wanted one. I knew that if I took one, I'd never leave. I'd stay here, happy forever, playing games forever, and soon I'd forget my mom, and my quest, and maybe even my own name. I'd be playing virtual rifleman with groovy Disco Darrin forever.**

People shuddered.

**Grover reached for the card, but Annabeth yanked back his arm and said, "No, thanks."**

**We walked toward the door, and as we did, the smell of the food and the sounds of the games seemed to get more and more inviting. I thought about our room upstairs. We could just stay the night, sleep in a real bed for once….**

**Then we burst through the doors of the Lotus Casino and ran down the sidewalk. It felt like afternoon, about the same time of day we'd gone into the casino, but something was wrong. The weather had completely changed. It was stormy, with heat lightning flashing out in the desert.**

"How long were you 3 in there?" Athena asked.

"You'll see" Percy said.

**Ares's backpack was slung over my shoulder, which was odd, because I was sure I had thrown it in the trash can in room 4001, but at the moment I had other problems to worry about.**

**I ran to the nearest newspaper stand and read the year first. Thank the gods, it was the same year it had been when we went in. Then I noticed the date: June twentieth.**

**We had been in the Lotus Casino for five days.**

"Thats bad" Athena said.

"See you jinxed it!" clarisse said.

**We had only one day left until the summer solstice. One day to complete our quest.**

"Done" Rachel said.

"I'm next!" Chris said and took the book from Rachel and read.

* * *

**i have actually decided that im not gonna have the big 3 children fight until percy's fight with ares. please please plase review! i have a few other stories out now too if you dont know all reay!**

**Gods High School Is Hard!  
~What will happen when the Gods of Mount Olympus attend a year of school at Goode High School with some of our favorite demigods?**

**The Story of Pothena  
~Yes I said Pothena! It's a collection of stories leading up to a romantic relationship between Poseidon and Athena! So...lots of Pothena. The stories go in order from ancient times to PJO times to future possibilities.**

**please read them! sorry about the long note btw! im gonna start wroking on another story to! its gonna be called The Unwritten Quest! PJO of course!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	22. We Shop For Waterbeds

**so sorry for the lateness!:) this chapter is dedicated to malecster *wild applause!***

**I have a few stories i want to recommend to you PJO fans:)**

**The Daughter Of Athena ~by:Christina B**

**The Fates Favorite Demigod ~by:PurpleGoddess9**

**Come Back Be Here ~by:Percabethlvrknowsall**

**Pollo, You Freaking Idiot ~by:MrsEDarcy (should read the first one first though)**

**Anything Goes in Fanfiction ~by:xXGrayGiutar14Xx**

**check them out:D**

**REVIEWER:**YJV

"I love the story, and I like the many reactions in between. I am eager to read the fight between the children of the big three. Please update soon. :)"

**~I am so glad you like it! I hope you love the fight I decided to do it a little early and tweak it**

**REVIEWER:**DeathlyHallowsschoolgirl

"Omg! I just realized my name was in your authors note! Thanks sooo much for the dedication! I can't wait for my favorite chapters, but I feel bad for the Di Angelo's... Nico is my adoptive big brother... I hope reading his sisters untimely demise won't destroy him too much... Anyway! Please update

**~I hope you notice your names in this note too;) your welcome. I feel bad that Bianca will have to read her own death:(**

**Reviwer:**Percabethlvrknowsall

"That was very nice of you Percy" Athena said.

"Hey! She called you Percy! We're in the clear!" Ananbeth said and Percy kissed her.

LOL. I love your stories too. Can you please update Gods High School Is Hard!

**~LOL! I was laughing when I wrote this part! I'll update Gods High School Is Hard after I eat lunch:)**

**Thats it till the ending note.**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

**disclaimer:**

**Percy: *with Riptide pointed at me* Say it!**

**Me: NEVA!**

**Annabeth: IF you don't it will be considered stealing a child of Athena's work**

**Me: Rick Riordan is a child of Athena?**

**Annabeth: He might as well be! Now say it!**

**Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! You wouldn't let Percy hurt me would you sis?**

**Percy: *glares at me* say it**

**Me: *sighs* I do not own the Percy Jackson series...sadly**

***Percy and Annabeth leave* Jerks**

**Percabeth:We heard that!**

* * *

**"We shop for waterbeds,"** Chris read.

"You're on a quest to stop World War Three and you shop?" Athena asked.

"There's nothing wrong with shopping" Aphrodite protested.

"There is when you're on a quest to stop a war" Athena argued.

Chris read so that he wouldn't have to listen to the girls bicker.

**It was Annabeth's idea.**

"It's always the girls idea to go shopping" Connor said and got quite a few glares from the girl's in the room.

**She loaded us into the back of a Vegas taxi as if we actually had money, and told the driver, "Los Angeles, please."**

**The cabbie chewed his cigar and sized us up. "That's three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay up front."**

**"You accept casino debit cards?" Annabeth asked.**

**He shrugged. "Some of 'em. Same as credit cards. I gotta swipe 'em through first."**

**Annabeth handed him her green LotusCash card.**

**He looked at it skeptically.**

"I don't think it's gonna work...it's mythologicl" Travis said.

"I'm so proud of you!" Katie told her boyfriend.

"Why?" Travis asked confused.

"You said a word that's more than 4 letters long!" Katie replied and everyone laughed except for Connor who yelled...

"NO! I'm losing my brother, comrade in pranks, to smarticles!"

**"Swipe it," Annabeth invited.**

**He did.**

**His meter machine started rattling. The lights flashed. Finally an infinity symbol came up next to the dollar sign.**

At this Leo, Connor and Travis' mouth flopped open.

"Please tell me you kept them!" Leo said.

Annabeth shook her head but Percy and Grover smiled and took their's out.

"Nice!" Leo said "can I borrow that sometime?"

"Sure" Grover said.

Apollo and Hermes looked at each other and grinned before they poofed out.

"Where'd they go?" Frank asked.

The other gods shrugged.

**The cigar fell out of the driver's mouth. He looked back at us, his eyes wide. "Where to in Los Angeles… uh, Your Highness?"**

"You liked that didn't you?" Piper asked and Annabeth nodded.

**"The Santa Monica Pier." Annabeth sat up a little str****aighter. I could tell she liked the "Your Highne****ss" thing. "Get us there fast, and you can keep the change."**

Everyone laughed.

**Maybe she shouldn't have told him that. The cab's speedometer never dipped below ninety-five the whole way through the Mojave Desert.**

"Bet that was fun" Connor said.

The trio shook their heads.

"I was scared" Percy said as Thalia and Nico gasped.

"The all famous, invincible, hero of Olympus, Percy Jackson was scared of a car ride?!" Thalia asked appalled.

"Yeah! You beat gods, Titans, some of the greatest monsters in history, and traitors and you get scared at driving 95 miles an hour?" Nico asked.

"Shut up you two" Percy said.

"You can't tell me what to do Kelp Head" Thalia said.

"Wanna bet Pinecone Face?" Percy said.

"Don't. Call. Me. Pinecone. Face." Thalia growled with her fist clenched and her eyes flashing like lightning. Her bow appeared strapped to her back.

"Then don't call me Kelp Head!" Percy said and glared at his cousin, he had Riptide in his hand.

"Calm down you two!" Nico said.

"Stay out of this Death Breath" Thalia said still glaring at Percy, she had her bow in her hand.

"Wouldn't want a kid like you getting hurt" Percy said, never taking his eyes off of Thalia.

"Don't call me Death Breath and I am not a kid!" Nico said now all three cousins were on their feet glaring at each other. Pecy had Riptide in sword form, Thalia had an arrow notched in her bow and Nico had his Stygian iron blade drawn.

Everyone watched with anticipation.

"You gonna shoot me _huntress_" Pery said.

"If you don't shut your mouth Seaweed Brain" Thalia said smirking.

"I told you! Only Annabeth can call me that!" Percy said and he felt a tug in the pit of his stomach.

"Too bad!" Thalia said lightning flickered around her.

"Sit down Nico! You're not apart of this!" Percy said.

"Why?!" Nico said "I was trying to get you two to sit down and be calm when you started calling me names and saying I was a kid! I'm just as powerful as you guys!"

"Stay out of this!" Thalia yelled at the Son of Hades.

"Don't. Tell. Me. What. To. DO!" Nico yelled at her and she turned her arrow on him.

"I am older than you! And Im a daughter of Zeus! Shut di Angelo!" Thalia said.

"Just because your dad is Zeus doesn't mean you rule everything!" Percy said.

"Neither do you" Thalia said.

Everyone else was to afraid to stop them.

Percy yelled and Thalia was doused with water.

"UGH!" Thalia said "you're dead!"

Thalia let her arrow fly and it barely missed Percy.

Percy lunged at her with Riptide and Thalia raised Aegis right before the magical blade hit the metal.

Thalia took her spear and jabbed it at Percy.

Percy flew back and hit his head on the wall next to Nico.

Thalia screamed and a streak of lightning lit up the room and blasted Percy and Nico back.

Nico got up and went after Thalia with his sword.

Percy got back up and joined in the fight.

The three cousins fought.

Thalia had taken her hunting knives and slashed and ended up grazing Nico's arm, giving him a good size cut.

Bianca saw and was instantly in the fight protecting her brother.

Bianca and Nico fought together.

Bianca had her hunting knives out and her and Thalia were slashing at each other.

Percy and Nico were sword against sword when Percy yelled and a wave hit the other three back.

Thalia was shot across the room and landed with a thud against the fireplace, she was out.

Jason got protective then.

"I may not know her but I know she's my sister and I'm not gonna let you hurt her like that and get away with it." he said.

The son of Jupiter took out a gold coin and flipped it.

In mid-air the coin turned into a golden sword and he and Percy fought, sword on sword.

It was an evenly matched fight and only ended when Zeus yelled.

"STOP!" the God of the Skies yelled and The cousins/siblings stopped fighting and turned to look at him.

"We will not have you children killing each other!" he thundered "No more! Understood?"

The demigods nodded, even Thalia who gained consciousness (spellcheck).

"SIT!" Zeus said and the fighting demigods sat back in their seats.

"Sorry guys...I didn't mean for it to get out of hand" Percy said and scratched the back of his head.

The other childrne of the Big Three apologized to each other and accepted apologies.

"Poseidon, Hades" Zeus said.

"Yes brother?"

"I must talk to you two next break" Zeus said.

Poseidon and Hades nodded.

Everyone was getting over the shock.

Sally didn't know her son was that powerful.

Chris began to read.

**On the road, we had plenty of time to talk. I told Annabeth and Grover about my latest dream, but the details got sketchier the more I tried to remember them. The Lotus Casino seemed to have short-circuited my memory. I couldn't recall what the invisible servant's voice had sounded like, though I was sure it was somebody I knew. The servant had called the monster in the pit something other than "my lord" … some special name or title….**

**"The Silent One?" Annabeth suggested. "The Rich One? Both of those are nicknames for Hades."**

"You're rich?" Leo asked.

"Yup" Hades said and Hazel looked down at her feet.

**"Maybe …" I said, though neither sounded quite right.**

**"That throne room sounds like Hades's," Grover said. "That's the way it's usually described."**

"I swear on the River Styx it wasn't me!" Hades yelled and thunder boomed.

**I shook my head. "Something's wrong. The throne room wasn't the main part of the dream. And that voice from the pit … I don't know. It just didn't feel like a god's voice."**

"How bout a Titan's?" someone asked.

**Annabeth's eyes widened.**

**"What?" I asked.**

**"Oh … nothing. I was just-No, it has to be Hades. Maybe he sent this thief, this invisible person, to get the master bolt, and something went wrong-"**

"You're really intent on it being me aren't you?" Hades asked.

"I was scared" Annabeth defended.

**"Like what?"**

**"I-I don't know," she said. "But if he stole Zeus's symbol of power from Olympus, and the gods were hunting him, I mean, a lot of things could go wrong. So this thief had to hide the bolt, or he lost it somehow. Anyway, he failed to bring it to Hades. That's what the voice said in your dream, right? The guy failed. That would explain what the Furies were searching for when they came after us on the bus. Maybe they thought we had retrieved the bolt."**

"Then why would they be going down to the Underworld?" Thalia asked, she had a bump on the forehead.

**I wasn't sure what was wrong with her. She looked pale.**

"You figured out who it was didn't you?" Percy asked.

"Annabeth nodded.

**"But if I'd already retrieved the bolt," I said, "why would I be traveling to the Underworld?"**

"Why am I the one who has to think like Percy?" Thalia asked jokingly.

**"To threaten Hades," Grover suggested. "To bribe or blackmail him into getting your mom back."**

"Evil thoughts?" Apollo asked as he and Hermes came back in with multiple envelopes and started passing them out to the demigods except Percy and Grover.

"What are these?" Connor asked as he tore open his.

Connor's eyes widened when he saw the green casino card in the envelope.

"Thank you!" Connor yelled and rushed forward and hugged the two Gods as everyone else opened theirs and got the same thing.

"Now you all won't have to borrow money when you go on quests and you'll have money" Apollo said.

"Thank you!" was heard from every demigod.

Even Sally got one, to pay for anything she needed.

**I whistled. "You have evil thoughts for a goat."**

"Now I'm thinking like Percy" Apollo said as he sat in his seat.

**"Why, thank you."**

Everyone laughed.

**"But the thing in the pit said it was waiting for two items," I said. "If the master bolt is one, what's the other?"**

**Grover shook his head, clearly mystified.**

**Annabeth was looking at me as if she knew my next question, and was silently willing me not to ask it.**

**"You have an idea what might be in that pit, don't you?" I asked her. "I mean, if it isn't Hades?"**

"It isn't me" Hades grumbled.

**"Percy … let's not talk about it. Because if it isn't Hades … No. It has to be Hades."**

"Again, really intent" Hades said.

"Again, sorry" Annabeth said.

**Wasteland rolled by. We passed a sign that said CALIFORNIA STATE LINE, 12 MILES.**

"Nice!" Nico said with a bandage on his arm.

**I got the feeling I was missing one simple, critical piece of information. It was like when I stared at a common word I should know, but I couldn't make sense of it because one or two letters were floating around. The more I thought about my quest, the more I was sure that confronting Hades wasn't the real answer. There was something else going on, something even more dangerous.**

"He's finally getting it!" Nico said and looked at the son of Poseidon making out wiht the Daughter of Athena.

"UGH!" Thalia joked.

"Get a room!" Nico said.

"Oh leave 'em be" Silena, Piper and Aphrodite said at the same time.

"Like mother like...daughter?" Hermes laughed.

**The problem was: we were hurtling toward the Underworld at ninety-five miles an hour, betting that Hades had the master bolt. If we got there and found out we were wrong, we wouldn't have time to correct ourselves. The solstice deadline would pass and war would begin.**

"And they say I'M the pessimist" Nico said.

"No we say you're A pessimist" Thalia argued "you and Percy!"

"Hey!" Nico and Percy protested, Percy taking a break from Annabeth only to go back to kissing her.

**"The answer is in the Underworld," Annabeth assured me. "You saw spirits of the dead, Percy. There's only one place that could be. We're doing the right thing."**

"The ANSWER is there...that doesn't mean it's our dad" Bianca said and Hades felt a rush of pride!

**She tried to boost our morale by suggesting clever strategies for getting into the Land of the Dead, but my heart wasn't in it. There were just too many unknown factors. It was like cramming for a test without knowing the subject. And believe me, I'd done that enough times.**

Annabeth smacked her boyfriend upside the back of the head before going back to kissing him.

"They make out, she hits him, then they make out more! What the Hades?!" Thalia said and everyone laughed.

**The cab sped west. Every gust of wind through Death Valley sounded like a spirit of the dead. Every time the brakes hissed on an eighteen-wheeler, it reminded me of Echidna's reptilian voice.**

"So optimistic!" Hazel said sarcastically.

**At sunset, the taxi dropped us at the beach in Santa Monica. It looked exactly the way L.A. beaches do in the movies, only it smelled worse. There were carnival rides lining the Pier, palm trees lining the sidewalks, homeless guys sleeping in the sand dunes, and surfer dudes waiting for the perfect wave.**

**Grover, Annabeth, and I walked down to the edge of the surf.**

**"What now?" Annabeth asked.**

**The Pacific was turning gold in the setting sun. I thought about how long it had been since I'd stood on the beach at Montauk, on the opposite side of the country, looking out at a different sea.**

**How could there be a god who could control all that? What did my science teacher used to say-two-thirds of the earth's surface was covered in water? How could I be the son of someone that powerful?**

Poseidon smiled.

"There is a god" he said and smiled.

**I stepped into the surf**

**"Percy?" Annabeth said. "What are you doing?"**

**I kept walking, up to my waist, then my chest.**

**She called after me, "You know how polluted that water is? There're all kinds of toxic-"**

**That's when my head went under.**

"That is an excellent way to turn out a girl!" Connor said and earned a glare from the girls and a whack on the head from one, he wasn't sure who.

**I held my breath at first. It's difficult to intentionally inhale water. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. I gasped. Sure enough, I could breathe normally.**

"Being a Son of Poseidon, best thing in the world." Percy smiled.

"So I got the best thing in the world?" Annabeth asked.

"No" Percy said "I got the best thing in the world...you."

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" Aphrodite, Piper, and Silena all cooed as the Percabeth couple kissed.

**I walked down into the shoals. I shouldn't have been able to see through the murk, but somehow I could tell where everything was. I could sense the rolling texture of the bottom. I could make out sand-dollar colonies dotting the sandbars. I could even see the currents, warm and cold streams swirling together.**

"Cool" Leo said.

**I felt something rub against my leg. I looked down and almost shot out of the water like a ballistic missile. Sliding along beside me was a five-foot-long mako shark.**

"Cool!" Frank said.

"Hey that's my line!" Leo argued.

**But the thing wasn't attacking. It was nuzzling me. Heeling like a dog. Tentatively, I touched its dorsal fin. It bucked a little, as if inviting me to hold tighter. I grabbed the fin with both hands. It took off, pulling me along. The shark carried me down into the darkness. It deposited me at the edge of the ocean proper, where the sand bank dropped off into a huge chasm. It was like standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon at midnight, not being able to see much, but knowing the void was right there.**

"We've been to the Grand Canyon" Piper grumbled.

"Worst experience ever" Jason said.

"Fell off" Leo mumbled.

**The surface shimmered maybe a hundred and fifty feet above. I knew I should've been crushed by the pressure. Then again, I shouldn't have been able to breathe. I wondered if there was a limit to how deep I could go, if I could sink straight to the bottom of the Pacific.**

"You can" Poseidon laughed.

**Then I saw something glimmering in the darkness below, growing bigger and brighter as it rose toward me. A woman's voice, like my mother's, called: "Percy Jackson."**

**As she got closer, her shape became clearer. She had flowing black hair, a dress made of green silk. Light flickered around her, and her eyes were so distractingly beautiful I hardly noticed the stallion-sized sea horse she was riding.**

"Tyson would love it" Percy said.

**She dismounted. The sea horse and the mako shark whisked off and started playing something that looked like tag. The underwater lady smiled at me. "You've come far, Percy Jackson. Well done."**

**I wasn't quite sure what to do, so I bowed. "You're the woman who spoke to me in the Mississippi River."**

**"Yes, child. I am a Nereid, a spirit of the sea. It was not easy to appear so far upriver, but the naiads, my freshwater cousins, helped sustain my life force. They honor Lord Poseidon, though they do not serve in his court."**

**"And … you serve in Poseidon's court?"**

"Of course...she's my favorite. She's loyal" Poseidon smiled.

**She nodded. "It has been many years since a child of the Sea God has been born. We have watched you with great interest."**

"Creepy" Travis said and Katie whacked him.

**Suddenly I remembered faces in the waves off Montauk Beach when I was a little boy, reflections of smiling women. Like so many of the weird things in my life, I'd never given it much thought before.**

"That would be weird" Leo said.

**"If my father is so interested in me," I said, "why isn't he here? Why doesn't he speak to me?"**

"Becasue I can't because of a dumb stupid law!" Poseidon said.

**A cold current rose out of the depths.**

**"Do not judge the Lord of the Sea too harshly," the Nereid told me. "He stands at the brink of an unwanted war. He has much to occupy his time. Besides, he is forbidden to help you directly. The gods may not show such favoritism."**

"You are my favorite son Percy" Poseidon said.

Percy smiled at him and Sally smiled to.

"Annabeth is my favorite child" Athena saidas she snuggled into Poseidon.

"Me?!" Annabeth asked surprised.

"Yes you" Athena said and looked at her daughter.

"But what about Daedalus and other famous childrne of yours?!" Annabeth said.

Athena thought for a minute.

"Nope your my favorite. I can all ready tell your going to make me very proud" she said.

"Thanks mom" Annabeth smiled.

"Your welcome" Athena said.

**"Even to their own children?"**

**"Especially to them. The gods can work by indirect influence only. That is why I give you a warning, and a gift."**

**She held out her hand. Three white pearls flashed in her palm.**

**"I know you journey to Hades's realm," she said. "Few mortals have ever done this and survived: Orpheus, who had great music skill; Hercules, who had great strength; Houdini, who could escape even the depths of Tartarus. Do you have these talents?"**

"No, I have something better...my Wise Girl'll help me" Percy smiled.

Annabeth blushed and kissed his cheek.

**"Urn … no, ma'am."**

**"Ah, but you have something else, Percy. You have gifts you have only begun to know. The oracles have foretold a great and terrible future for you, should you survive to manhood. Poseidon would not have you die before your time. Therefore take these, and when you are in need, smash a pearl at your feet."**

**"What will happen?"**

**"That," she said, "depends on the need. But remember: what belongs to the sea will always return to the sea."**

**"What about the warning?"**

**Her eyes flickered with green light. "Go with what your heart tells you, or you will lose all. Hades feeds on doubt and hopelessness. He will trick you if he can, make you mistrust your own judgment. Once you are in his realm, he will never willingly let you leave. Keep faith. Good luck, Percy Jackson."**

"You'd better" Poseidon growled at Hades.

**She summoned her sea horse and rode toward the void.**

**"Wait!" I called. "At the river, you said not to trust the gifts. What gifts?"**

"I think I know" Athena said.

"You do?" Poseidon asked.

"I think it's the gift Ares gave them" Athena said and everyone looked at Ares.

"I don't know! Hasn't happened yet!" Ares yelled.

**"Good-bye, young hero," she called back, her voice fading into the depths. "You must listen to your heart." She became a speck of glowing green, and then she was gone.**

**I wanted to follow her down into the darkness. I wanted to see the court of Poseidon. But I looked up at the sunset darkening on the surface. My friends were waiting. We had so little time….**

**I kicked upward toward the shore.**

**When I reached the beach, my clothes dried instantly. I told Grover and Annabeth what had happened, and showed them the pearls.**

**Annabeth grimaced. "No gift comes without a price."**

**"They were free."**

A lot of people's palms met their faces.

"Seaweed Brain" Annabeth said.

**"No." She shook her head. "'There is no such thing as a free lunch.' That's an ancient Greek saying that translated pretty well into American. There will be a price. You wait."**

Percy looked down and Annabeth snuggled closer into him.

**On that happy thought, we turned our backs on the sea.**

**With some spare change from Ares's backpack, we took the bus into West Hollywood. I showed the driver the Underworld address slip I'd taken from Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium, but he'd never heard of DOA Recording Studios.**

**"You remind me of somebody I saw on TV," he told me. "You a child actor or something?"**

**"Uh … I'm a stunt double … for a lot of child actors."**

"Nice!" Nico said.

"You were on another bus?" Athena asked.

"We didn't destroy it" Annabeth promised.

"Good" Athena said and Poseidon chuckled and kissed the top of her head.

**"Oh! That explains it."**

**We thanked him and got off quickly at the next stop.**

**We wandered for miles on foot, looking for DOA. Nobody seemed to know where it was. It didn't appear in the phone book.**

**Twice, we ducked into alleys to avoid cop cars.**

**I froze in front of an appliance-store window because a television was playing an interview with somebody who looked very familiar-my stepdad, Smelly Gabe.**

Everyone glared and Annabeth and Sally had their hands in fist and their eyes closed tightly.

**He was talking to Barbara Walters-I mean, as if he were some kind of huge celebrity. She was interviewing him in our apartment, in the middle of a poker game, and there was a young blond lady sitting next to him, patting his hand.**

"Jerk" everyone said and Poseidon looked murderous.

**A fake tear glistened on his cheek. He was saying, "Honest, Ms. Walters, if it wasn't for Sugar here, my grief counselor, I'd be a wreck. My stepson took everything I cared about. My wife … my Camaro … I-I'm sorry. I have trouble talking about it."**

"You cared more about your freaking precious Camaro more than you cared about my mom who had to put up with your pathetic ass" Percy said.

"Percy" Sally warned.

"Sorry mom" Percy said.

**"There you have it, America." Barbara Walters turned to the camera. "A man torn apart. An adolescent boy with serious issues. Let me show you, again, the last known photo of this troubled young fugitive, taken a week ago in Denver."**

**The screen cut to a grainy shot of me, Annabeth, and Grover standing outside the Colorado diner, talking to Ares.**

"Great! They know you're heading west" Poseidon said.

**"Who are the other children in this photo?" Barbara Walters asked dramatically. "Who is the man with them? Is Percy Jackson a delinquent, a terrorist, or perhaps the brainwashed victim of a frightening new cult? When we come back, we chat with a leading child psychologist. Stay tuned, America."**

"None of the above "Annabeth said "a hero."

"I love you" Percy said.

"I love you more" Annabeth said and Percy whispered in her ear.

"Doubt doubt me love" he said and kissed her cheek.

**"C'mon," Grover told me. He hauled me away before I could punch a hole in the appliance-store window.**

"Good boy Grover" Athena said.

**It got dark, and hungry-looking characters started coming out on the streets to play. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm a New Yorker. I don't scare easy. But L.A. had a totally different feel from New York. Back home, everything seemed close. It didn't matter how big the city was, you could get anywhere without getting lost. The street pattern and the subway made sense. There was a system to how things worked. A kid could be safe as long as he wasn't stupid.**

"So...Prissy wouldn't be safe?" Clarisse asked.

Everyone laughed, even Percy.

"I have my moments" he said.

**L.A. wasn't like that. It was spread out, chaotic, hard to move around. It reminded me of Ares. It wasn't enough for L.A. to be big; it had to prove it was big by being loud and strange and difficult to navigate, too. I didn't know how we were ever going to find the entrance to the Underworld by tomorrow, the summer solstice.**

"You compared me to a city" Ares said.

**We walked past gangbangers, ****bums, and street hawkers, who looked at us like th****ey were trying to figure if we were worth the trouble of mugging.**

**As we hurried passed the entrance of an alley, a voice from the darkness said, "Hey, you."**

**Like an idiot, I stopped.**

"Only you Kelp Head" Thalia joked, her bump fading due to her blessing or Artemis.

Everyone laughed.

**Before I knew it, we were surrounded. A gang of kids had circled us. Six of them in all-white kids with expensive clothes and mean faces. Like the kids at Yancy Academy: rich brats playing at being bad boys.**

**Instinctively, I uncapped Riptide.**

"Like it would do anything to them" Ares said.

**When the sword appeared out of nowhere, the kids backed off, but their leader was either really stupid or really brave, because he kept coming at me with a switchblade.**

"I'm going with stupid" someone said and everyone laughed except Athena and Poseidon who were worrying for their children.

**I made the mistake of swinging.**

**The kid yelped. But he must've been one hundred percent mortal, because the blade passed harmlessly right through his chest. He looked down. "What the …"**

"Haha" Ares said "confused mortals."

**I figured I had about three seconds before his shock turned to anger. "Run!" I screamed at Annabeth and Grover.**

**We pushed two kids out of the way and raced down the street, not knowing where we were going. We turned a sharp corner.**

**"There!" Annabeth shouted.**

**Only one store on the block looked open, its windows glaring with neon. The sign above the door said something like CRSTUY'S WATRE BDE ALPACE.**

"It was your idea!" the Stolls said.

"I told you!" Percy said and Annabeth whacked him up the head.

**"Crusty's Water Bed Palace?" Grover translated.**

**It didn't sound like a place I'd ever go except in an emergency, but this definitely qualified.**

**We burst through the doors, ran behind a water bed, and ducked. A split second later, the gang kids ran past outside.**

**"I think we lost them," Grover panted.**

**A voice behind us boomed, "Lost who?"**

**We all jumped.**

"Monster?" Athena and Poseidon asked at the same time.

Percy and Annabeth nodded.

The God and Goddess sighed and leaned back.

**Standing behind us was a guy who looked like a raptor in a leisure suit. He was at least seven feet tall, with absolutely no hair. He had gray, leathery skin, thick-lidded eyes, and a cold, reptilian smile. He moved toward us slowly, but I got the feeling he could move fast if he needed to.**

**His suit might've come from the Lotus Casino. It belonged back in the seventies, big-time. The shirt was silk paisley, unbuttoned halfway down his hairless chest. The lapels on his velvet jacket were as wide as landing strips. The silver chains around his neck-I couldn't even count them.**

**"I'm Crusty," he said, with a tartar-yellow smile.**

**I resisted the urge to say, Yes, you are.**

Everyone laughed.

**"Sorry to barge in," I told him. "We were just, um, browsing."**

**"You mean hiding from those no-good kids," he grumbled. "They hang around every night. I get a lot of people in here, thanks to them. Say, you want to look at a water bed?"**

"Say no" athena and Poseidon said.

**I was about to say No, thanks, when he put a huge paw on my shoulder and steered me deeper into the showroom.**

"Didn't have a choice" Grover said.

**There was every kind of water bed you could imagine: different kinds of wood, different patterns of sheets; queen-size, king-size, emperor-of-the-universe-size.**

"Emperor of the universe?" Connor asked.

"So Zeus has a bed named after him...weird" Travis said and everyone laughed.

**"This is my most popular model" Crusty spread his hands proudly over a bed covered with black satin sheets, with built-in Lava Lamps on the headboard. The mattress vibrated, so it looked like oil-flavored Jell-O.**

**"Million-hand massage," Crusty told us. "Go on, try it out. Shoot, take a nap. I don't care. No business today, any-way.**

"Please don't" Athena said.

**"Um," I said, "I don't think …"**

**"Million-hand massage!" Grover cried, and dove in. "Oh, you guys! This is cool."**

Athena face-palmed.

**"Hmm," Crusty said, stroking his leathery chin. "Almost, almost."**

**"Almost what?" I asked.**

**He looked at Annabeth. "Do me a favor and try this one over here, honey. Might fit."**

**Annabeth said, "But what-"**

**He patted her reassuringly on the shoulder and led her over to the Safari Deluxe model with teakwood lions carved into the frame and a leopard-patterned comforter. When Annabeth didn't want to lie down, Crusty pushed her.**

"Bad" Nico said.

**"Hey!" she protested.**

**Crusty snapped his fingers. "Ergo!"**

**Ropes sprang from the sides of the bed, lashing around Annabeth, holding her to the mattress.**

**Grover tried to get up, but ropes sprang from his black-satin bed, too, and lashed him down.**

"This is not good" Athena said, worrying for her daughter's life and Dionysus was worrying for his satyr's life.

**"N-not c-c-cool!" he yelled, his voice vibrating from the million-hand massage. "N-not c-cool a-at all!"**

**The giant looked at Annabeth, then turned toward me and grinned. "Almost, darn it."**

**I tried to step away, but his hand shot out and clamped around the back of my neck. "Whoa, kid. Don't worry. We'll find you one in a sec."**

**"Let my friends go."**

**"Oh, sure I will. But I got to make them fit, first."**

**"What do you mean?"**

"Why is Percy the smart one this time?" Nico asked.

"Hey!" Percy objected.

**"All the beds are exactly six feet, see? Your friends are too short. Got to make them fit."**

**Annabeth and Grover kept struggling.**

**"Can't stand imperfect measurements," Crusty muttered. "Ergo!"**

**A new set of ropes leaped out from the top and bottom of the beds, wrapping around Grover and Annabeth's ankles, then around their armpits. The ropes started tightening, pulling my friends from both ends.**

Annabeth and Grover cringed remembering the streching.

**"Don't worry," Crusty told me, "These are stretching jobs. Maybe three extra inches on their spines. They might even live. Now why don't we find a bed you like, huh?"**

**"Percy!" Grover yelled.**

**My mind was racing. I knew I couldn't take on this giant water-bed salesman alone. He would snap my neck before I ever got my sword out.**

**"Your real name's not Crusty, is it?" I asked.**

**"Legally, it's Procrustes," he admitted.**

**"The Stretcher," I said. I remembered the story: the giant who'd tried to kill Theseus with excess hospitality on his way to Athens.**

"Why is going after my two kids!" Poseidon said.

"Your son's not being stretched to death and Theseus lived "Athena said.

"Sorry love" Poseidon said and kissed her.

**"Yeah," the salesman said. "But who can pronounce Procrustes? Bad for business. Now 'Crusty,' anybody can say that."**

**"You're right. It's got a good ring to it."**

Everyone looked confused.

'What is he doing?' they all thought.

Percy noticed their confused looks and winked

"you'll see"Anyone else getting tired of those words?" Rachel asked and everyone nodded.

**His eyes lit up. "You think so?"**

**"Oh, absolutely," I said. "And the workmanship on these beds? Fabulous!"**

Athena caught on.

"Nice plan Percy" she said.

Everyone else still looked confused.

**He grinned hugely, but his fingers didn't loosen on my neck. "I tell my customers that. Every time. Nobody bothers to look at the workmanship. How many built-in Lava Lamp headboards have you seen?"**

**"Not too many."**

**"That's right!"**

**"Percy!" Annabeth yelled. "What are you doing?"**

**"Don't mind her," I told Procrustes. "She's impossible."**

Annabeth huffed and crossed her arms and turned away when Percy tried to kiss her.

"I was saving you!" Percy complained but Annabeth didn't budge.

Chris continued to read as Percy begged for Annabeth to let him kiss her.

**The giant laughed. "All my customers are. Never six feet exactly. So inconsiderate. And then they complain about the fitting."**

**"What do you do if they're longer than six feet?"**

**"Oh, that happens all the time. It's a simple fix."**

**He let go of my neck, but before I could react, he reached behind a nearby sales desk and brought out a huge double-bladed brass axe. He said, "I just center the subject as best I can and lop off whatever hangs over on either end."**

**"Ah," I said, swallowing hard. "Sensible."**

"Nice plan" Luke said just catching on.

**"I'm so glad to come across an intelligent customer!"**

**The ropes were really stretching my friends now. Annabeth was turning pale. Grover made gurgling sounds, like a strangled goose.**

"Not good" Athena said "you might want to hurry."

"I wouldn't let anyone hurt my Wise Girl" Percy said, Annabeth was still turned away.

**"So, Crusty …" I said, trying to keep my voice light. I glanced at the sales tag on the valentine-shaped Honeymoon Special. "Does this one really have dynamic stabilizers to stop wave motion?"**

**"Absolutely. Try it out."**

**"Yeah, maybe I will. But would it work even for a big guy like you? No waves at all?"**

**"Guaranteed."**

**"No way."**

**"Way."**

**"Show me."**

**He sat down eagerly on the bed, patted the mattress. "No waves. See?"**

**I snapped my fingers. "Ergo."**

"I get it!" everyone else said.

"Slow" Percy laughed.

**Ropes lashed around Crusty and flattened him against the mattress.**

**"Hey!" he yelled.**

**"Center him just right," I said.**

"Reveng...love it" Thalia grinned.

**The ropes readjusted themselves at my command. Crusty's whole head stuck out the top. His feet stuck out the bottom.**

**"No!" he said. "Wait! This is just a demo."**

**I uncapped Riptide. "A few simple adjustments …"**

**I had no qualms about what I was about to do. If Crusty were human, I couldn't hurt him anyway. If he was a monster, he deserved to turn into dust for a while.**

**"You drive a hard bargain," he told me. "I'll give you thirty percent off on selected floor models.'"**

**"I think I'll start with the top." I raised my sword.**

**"No money down! No interest for six months!"**

"Quit the act!" Hephaestus said getting a little annoyed.

**I swung the sword. Crusty stopped making offers.**

Everyone cheered.

**I cut the ropes on the other beds. Annabeth and Grover got to their feet, groaning and wincing and cursing me a lot.**

**"You look taller," I said.**

**"Very funny," Annabeth said. "Be faster next time."**

"Lets hope there isn't a second time" Athena said.

**I looked at the bulletin board behind Crusty's sales desk. There was an advertisement for Hermes Delivery Service, and another for the All-New Compendium of L.A. Area Monsters-"The only Monstrous Yellow Pages you'll ever need!" Under that, a bright orange flier for DOA Recording Studios, offering commissions for heroes' souls. "We are always looking for new talent!" DOA's address was right underneath with a map.**

**"Come on," I told my friends.**

**"Give us a minute," Grover complained. "We were almost stretched to death.'"**

**"Then you're ready for the Underworld," I said. "It's only a block from here."**

**"**Done" Chris said and Bekendorf asked to read.

* * *

**again i am so sorry for being so late, im grounded. I hoped you all like the little fight.**

**Okay the fist 5 people to get this answer gets a chapter dedicated to them...**

**What is Clarisse's prophecy in the second book.**

**Regulations:**

**a)must state full prophecy word for word**

**b)must swear on the styx that you did it from memory**

**Percy and Annabeth might kill me because of the disclaimer so save me!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnaebthChase~**


	23. Annabeth Does Obedience School

**i got a chapter done! yes! im so proud of my self!:D i hope the fluff is enough.**

**Now this chapter is dedicated to the 5 people who answered my prophecy question correctly!**

**first the prophecy was...(all lights point down)**

You shall sail the iron ship with warriors of bone,  
You shall find what you seek and make it your own,  
But despair for you life entombed within stone,  
And fail without friends to fly home alone.

**the 5 people who correctly stated the prophecy and swore on the Styx was...**

**Poseidonsfavdaughter! *wild applause***

**Percabeth226! *crowd goes crazy with applause***

**Jade-Queen of Fantasy! *applause is built up over time and won't stop!***

**JustAnotherDemigod! *applause is unbearable***

**Hunter0012! *im deaf from applause!***

**Plase note!: the applause was built up over time there was no favoritism! thank you.**

**now for reviewer comments!**

** ~allen r  
**loved all the percabeth and poseidon and athena fluff. great chapter. however I am sad that Percy and annabeth did not make up by the end of the chapter.  
**-i'm sorry i didn't have them make up:) wait till you see the fluff in this s\chapter between percy and annabeth. they make up about a paragraph down:)**

** ~thealphamale  
**Good chapter! Although the cousins trying to seriously hurt each other because of some comments is ridiculous.  
** -i admit it was pretty stupid of them. but i was in the mood to make the fight so i made it over some stupid stuff...i mean cousins fight over stupid stuff all the time right?!  
...**

**disclaimer:**

**Thalia: say it or i'll shock you!**

**Me: no!**

**Nico: You really wanna see my dad that bad don't ya?**

**Me: *gulps* no but i wont say it.**

**Percy: you wanna spend your entire life enprisoned under water?**

**Me: *shakes head* no**

**All three of them: then say it!**

**Me: Fine! Rick Riordan owns PJO not me! there I said it can you let me go now? **

**Three demigods: *looks at one another* no *walks out and turns out the lights leaving me alone in the dark tied to a chair***

**Me: HELLO?! reviewers? HELP! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh SPIDER!**

* * *

**"Annabeth does obedience School" **Bekendorf read.

Annabeth sighed remebering the promise she made but never kept.

Percy tried to put his arm around her and kiss her head but she still wouldn't let him.

"Oh come on!" Percy wailed.

**We stood in the shadows of Valencia Boulevard, looking up at gold letters etched in black marble: DOA RECORDING STUDIOS.**

**Underneath, stenciled on the glass doors: NO SOLICITORS. NO LOITERING. NO LIVING.**

"Good job making it unnoticeable" Hazel said.

**It was almost midnight, but the lobby was brightly lit and full of people. Behind the security desk sat a tough-looking guard with sunglasses and an earpiece.**

"Not as tough as me" Ares said and put his feet up on the coffee table.

"Ares!" Hera scolded "Feet off the table!"

Ares put his feet down and mumbled and apology.

**I turned to my friends. "Okay. You remember the plan."**

"Worse plan ever!" Annabeth said and Grover nodded in agreement.

Percy pouted and Annabeth couldn't take it.

Annabeth kissed her pouting boyfriend and his face lit up into a huge grin at this and kissed her back.

"Again...Get. A. ROOM!" Thalia and Nico said in unision.

**"The plan," Grover gulped. "Yeah. I love the plan."**

"How bad did it suck?" Thalia asked.

"It really sucked" Annabeth said.

Percy huffed.

**Annabeth said, "What happens if the plan doesn't work?"**

**"Don't think negative."**

"Yeah that's Percy and Nico's job!" Thalia argued.

"Hey!" the Son of Hades and the Son of Poseidon said.

**"Right," she said. "We're entering the Land of the Dead, and I shouldn't think negative."**

Everyone laughed.

**I took the pearls out of my pocket, the three milky spheres the Nereid had given me in Santa Monica. They didn't seem like much of a backup in case something went wrong.**

"Nothing should go wrong" Athena said.

"Well we still got some book left so something must go wrong" Bekendorf said.

**Annabeth put her hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Percy. You're right, we'll make it. It'll be fine."**

**She gave Grover a nudge.**

**"Oh, right!" he chimed in. "We got this far. We'll find the master bolt and save your mom. No problem."**

"Each pearl only transports one person!" Poseidon realized.

Athena caught on.

"One of you will have to stay behind" she said.

Poseidon, Athena, Sally and Dionysus all looked worried.

**I looked at them both, and felt really grateful. Only a few minutes before, I'd almost gotten them stretched to death on deluxe water beds, and now they were trying to be brave for my sake, trying to make me feel better.**

"Thats what friends do" Grover said.

"And girlfriends just kiss them and all of a sudden they're brave!" Thalia said gesturing to Percy and Annabeth who were basically ignoring everyone and randomly chatting as they intertwined their hands over and over again.

Aphrodite resisted the urge to squel.

**I slipped the pearls back in my pocket. "Let's whup some Underworld butt."**

**We walked inside the DOA lobby.**

**Muzak played softly on hidden speakers. The carpet and walls were steel gray. Pencil cactuses grew in the corners like skeleton hands. The furniture was black leather, and every seat was taken. There were people sitting on couches, people standing up, people staring out the windows or waiting for the elevator. Nobody moved, or talked, or did much of anything. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see them all just fine, but if I focused on any one of them in particular, they started looking … transparent. I could see right through their bodies.**

"That would creep me out" Piper said and shivered.

Jason hugged her closer.

"You have nooooooo idea" Nico and Hazel said at the same time.

**The security guard's desk was a raised podium, so we had to look up at him.**

**He was tall and elegant, with chocolate-colored skin and bleached-blond hair shaved military style. He wore tortoiseshell shades and a silk Italian suit that matched his hair. A black rose was pinned to his lapel under a silver name tag.**

**I read the name tag, then looked at him in bewilderment. "Your name is Chiron?"**

Everyone's faces met their palms.

"Only Percy" Thalia joked.

Percy looked up from Annabeth, a wide smile stretched across his face, at the mention of his name.

"I heard my name" Percy said and everyone laughed as he got a confused look on his face.

"Thalia's just teasing you again" Nico said.

Percy laughed.

"Nothing new" he said between laughs.

"Exactly" Nico said.

Everyone was laughing now.

**He leaned across the desk. I couldn't see anything in his glasses except my own reflection, but his smile was sweet and cold, like a pythons, right before it eats you.**

**"What a precious young lad." He had a strange accent-British, maybe, but also as if he had learned English as a second language. "Tell me, mate, do I look like a centaur?"**

"No you look dead" Nico said.

**"N-no."**

**"Sir," he added smoothly.**

**"Sir," I said.**

"Sounds like Dionysus" Apollo said.

Everyone laughed as the Wine God nodded.

**He pinched the name tag and ran his finger under the letters. "Can you read this, mate? It says C-H-A-R-O-N. Say it with me: CARE-ON."**

**"Charon."**

**"Amazing! Now: Mr. Charon."**

**"Mr. Charon," I said.**

Everyone laughed.

**"Well done." He sat back. "I hate being confused with that old horse-man. And now, how may I help you little dead ones?"**

"That sounds weird "Frank said.

**His question caught in my stomach like a fastball. I looked at Annabeth for support.**

**"We want to go the Underworld," she said.**

**Charon's mouth twitched. "Well, that's refreshing."**

"Don't hear that everyday do ya?" Hermes joked.

**"It is?" she asked.**

**"Straightforward and honest. No screaming. No 'There must be a mistake, Mr. Charon.'" He looked us over. "How did you die, then?"**

"This will be interesting "Thalia said.

**I nudged Grover.**

**"Oh," he said. "Um … drowned … in the bathtub."**

The Stolls shook their heads.

"This is why we're giving you lessons" Travis said.

"Whippee" Grover said and twirled his finger un-enthusiastically **(spell check...i suck at spelling btw)**

**"All three of you?" Charon asked. We nodded.**

**"Big bathtub." Charon looked mildly impressed. "I don't suppose you have coins for passage. Normally, with adults, you see, I could charge your American Express, or add the ferry price to your last cable bill. But with children … alas, you never die prepared. Suppose you'll have to take a seat for a few centuries."**

**"Oh, but we have coins." I set three golden drachmas on the counter, part of the stash I'd found in Crusty's office desk.**

"He'll like that" Athena said.

"I love bribery" Hermes and his kids sighed.

**"Well, now …" Charon moistened his lips. "Real drachmas. Real golden drachmas. I haven't seen these in …"**

**His fingers hovered greedily over the coins.**

**We were so close.**

**Then Charon looked at me. That cold stare behind his glasses seemed to bore a hole through my chest. "Here now," he said. "You couldn't read my name correctly. Are you dyslexic, lad?"**

"He's gonna figure out their demigods not dead" Athena said.

**"No," I said. "I'm dead."**

Everyone laughed.

"That effects your reading abilities?" Leo asked.

"I don't know...you wanna find out?" Ares asked.

"No thank you" Leo said.

**Charon leaned forward and took a sniff. "You're not dead. I should've known. You're a godling."**

**"We have to get to the Underworld," I insisted.**

**Charon made a growling sound deep in his throat.**

**Immediately, all the people in the waiting room got up and started pacing, agitated, lighting cigarettes, running hands through their hair, or checking their wristwatches.**

**"Leave while you can," Charon told us. "I'll just take these and forget I saw you."**

"Nice try" someone said.

**He started to go for the coins, but I snatched them back.**

**"No service, no tip." I tried to sound braver than I felt.**

"It didn't work" Annabeth said.

**Charon growled again-a deep, blood-chilling sound. The spirits of the dead started pounding on the elevator doors.**

**"It's a shame, too," I sighed. "We had more to offer."**

**I held up the entire bag from Crusty's stash. I took out a fistful of drachmas and let the coins spill through my fingers.**

"Now you're just teasing him" Hades said "keep going."

**Charon's growl changed into something more like a lion's purr. "Do you think I can be bought, godling? Eh … just out of curiosity, how much have you got there?"**

**"A lot," I said. "I bet Hades doesn't pay you well enough for such hard work."**

"Here we go "Hades and Nico sighed.

**"Oh, you don't know the half of it. How would you like to babysit these spirits all day? Always 'Please don't let me be dead' or 'Please let me across for free.' I haven't had a pay raise in three thousand years. Do you imagine suits like this come cheap?"**

"He runs the ferry to the Underworld not a five-star hotel" Rachel said "He doesn't need fancy suits!"

**"You deserve better," I agreed. "A little appreciation. Respect. Good pay."**

**With each word, I stacked another gold coin on the counter.**

"Percy? Are you absolutely positive you are not a child of Hermes?" Hermes asked.

"He's mine" Poseidon said.

"He hangs around my children to much then" Hermes said.

**Charon glanced down at his silk Italian jacket, as if imagining himself in something even better. "I must say, lad, you're making some sense now. Just a little."**

**I stacked another few coins. "I could mention a pay raise while I'm talking to Hades."**

"Did you?" Frank asked.

Percy nodded and smiled.

"Nice" a few people said.

**He sighed. "The boat's almost full, anyway. I might as well add you three and be off."**

**He stood, scooped up our money, and said, "Come along."**

**We pushed through the crowd of waiting spirits, who started grabbing at our clothes like the wind, their voices whispering things I couldn't make out. Charon shoved them out of the way, grumbling, "Freeloaders."**

"They're dead!" Katie said.

**He escorted us into the elevator, which was already crowded with souls of the dead, each one holding a green boarding pass. Charon grabbed two spirits who were trying to get on with us and pushed them back into the lobby.**

**"Right. Now, no one get any ideas while I'm gone," he announced to the waiting room. "And if anyone moves the dial off my easy-listening station again, I'll make sure you're here for another thousand years. Understand?"**

"Jerk" a few muttered.

**He shut the doors. He put a key card into a slot in the elevator panel and we started to descend.**

**"What happens to the spirits waiting in the lobby?" Annabeth asked.**

**"Nothing," Charon said.**

**"For how long?"**

**"Forever, or until I'm feeling generous."**

**"Oh," she said. "That's … fair."**

**Charon raised an eyebrow. "Whoever said death was fair, young miss? Wait until it's your turn. You'll die soon enough, where you're going."**

"You're not helping!" Percy said.

**"We'll get out alive," I said.**

**"Ha."**

"I would love to go back and be like 'Hey! We did get out alive!' " Percy said.

**I got a sudden dizzy feeling. We weren't going down anymore, but forward. The air turned misty. Spirits around me started changing shape. Their modern clothes flickered, turning into gray hooded robes. The floor of the elevator began swaying.**

**I blinked hard. When I opened my eyes, Charon's creamy Italian suit had been replaced by a long black robe. His tortoiseshell glasses were gone. Where his eyes should've been were empty sockets-like Ares's eyes, except Charon's were totally dark, full of night and death and despair.**

Everyone shivered except for Nico, Hades, Bianca and Hazel.

"That's a depressing thought" Thalia said.

**He saw me looking, and said, "Well?"**

**"Nothing," I managed.**

**I thought he was grinning, but that wasn't it. The flesh of his face was becoming transparent, letting me see straight through to his skull.**

**The floor kept swaying.**

**Grover said, "I think I'm getting seasick."**

"I don't get seasick and this time I did" Percy said.

**When I blinked again, the elevator wasn't an elevator anymore. We were standing in a wooden barge. Charon was poling us across a dark, oily river, swirling with bones, dead fish, and other, stranger things-plastic dolls, crushed carnations, soggy diplomas with gilt edges.**

"Not the best place for a swim" Jason said.

"Try bathing in it" Percy said.

"I still can't believe you did that" Annabeth said.

"How else was I supposed to battle L...I mean Kronos" Percy said.

_"Who's name starts with L?" _Zeus thought and looked down at Luke_ "Nah he's a good kid, never have problems with him."_

**"The River Styx," Annabeth murmured. "It's so …"**

**"Polluted," Charon said. "For thousands of years, you humans have been throwing in everything as you come across-hopes, dreams, wishes that never came true. Irresponsible waste management, if you ask me."**

**Mist curled off the filthy water. Above us, almost lost in the gloom, was a ceiling of stalactites. Ahead, the far shore glimmered with greenish light, the color of poison.**

**Panic closed up my throat. What was I doing here? These people around me … they were dead.**

**Annabeth grabbed hold of my hand.**

Aphrodite squeled.

"It wasn't like that!" Percy and Annabeth said blushing.

**this boat.****I found myself muttering a prayer, though I wasn't quite sure who I was praying to. Down here, only one god mattered, and he was the one I had come to confront.**

Hades looked smug.

**The shoreline of the Underworld came into view. Craggy rocks and black volcanic sand stretched inland about a hundred yards to the base of a high stone wall, which marched off in either direction as far as we could see. A sound came from somewhere nearby in the green gloom, echoing off the stones-the howl of a large animal.**

**"Old Three-Face is hungry," Charon said. His smile turned skeletal in the greenish light. "Bad luck for you, godlings."**

Athena, Poseidon, and Dionysus paled.

**The bottom of our boat slid onto the black sand. The dead began to disembark. A woman holding a little girl's hand. An old man and an old woman hobbling along arm in arm. A boy no older than I was, shuffling silently along in his gray robe.**

"That's sad" Hera said "why did the author have to say a little girl and mother, a young boy, and a couple that grew old together?! Why couldn't he just say dead people?"

**Charon said, "I'd wish you luck, mate, but there isn't any down here. Mind you, don't forget to mention my pay raise."**

**He counted our golden coins into his pouch, then took up his pole. He warbled something that sounded like a Barry Manilow song as he ferried the empty barge back across the river.**

**We followed the spirits up a well-worn path.**

**I'm not sure what I was expecting-Pearly Gates, or a big black portcullis, or something. But the entrance to the Underworld looked like a cross between airport security and the Jersey Turnpike.**

"Traffic" Nico and Hades mumbled.

**There were three separate entrances under one huge black archway that said YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EREBUS. Each entrance had a pass-through metal detector with security cameras mounted on top. Beyond this were tollbooths manned by black-robed ghouls like Charon.**

**The howling of the hungry animal was really loud now, but I couldn't see where it was coming from. The three-headed dog, Cerberus, who was supposed to guard Hades's door, was nowhere to be seen.**

**The dead queued up in the three lines, two marked ATTENDANT ON DUTY, and one marked EZ DEATH. The EZ DEATH line was moving right along. The other two were crawling.**

**"What do you figure?" I asked Annabeth.**

**"The fast line must go straight to the Asphodel Fields," she said. "No contest. They don't want to risk judgment from the court, because it might go against them."**

**"There's a court for dead people?"**

**"Yeah. Three judges. They switch around who sits on the bench. King Minos,**

Nico grumbled something uncompehendable.

**Thomas Jefferson, Shakespeare-people like that. Sometimes they look at a life and decide that person needs a special reward-the Fields of Elysium. Sometimes they decide on punishment. But most people, well, they just lived. Nothing special, good or bad. So they go to the Asphodel Fields."**

**"And do what?"**

**Grover said, "Imagine standing in a wheat field in Kansas. Forever."**

**"Harsh," I said.**

Everyone nodded.

**"Not as harsh as that," Grover muttered. "Look."**

**A couple of black-robbed ghouls had pulled aside one spirit and were frisking him at the security desk. The face of the dead man looked vaguely familiar.**

**"He's that preacher who made the news, remember?" Grover asked.**

**"Oh, yeah." I did remember now. We'd seen him on TV a couple of times at the Yancy Academy dorm. He was this annoying televangelist from upstate New York who'd raised millions of dollars for orphanages and then got caught spending the money on stuff for his mansion, like gold-plated toilet seats, and an indoor putt-putt golf course. He'd died in a police chase when his "Lamborghini for the Lord" went off a cliff.**

"Lamborghini for the lord?" Apollo asked.

Despite the tense situation with our heros everyone laughed.

**I said, "What're they doing to him?"**

**"Special punishment from Hades," Grover guessed. "The really bad people get his personal attention as soon as they arrive. The Fur-the Kindly Ones will set up an eternal torture for him."**

"I'd say I feel bad for them...buuuuuuuuuuuuut I don't" Nico said.

"For once I agree with Ghost Boy" Thalia said.

**The thought of the Furies made me shudder. I realized I was in their home territory now. Old Mrs. Dodds would be licking her lips with anticipation.**

"Optimistic?" Nico asked.

**"But if he's a preacher," I said, "and he believes in a different hell… ."**

**Grover shrugged. "Who says he's seeing this place the way we're seeing it? Humans see what they want to see. You're very stubborn-er, persistent, that way."**

A few people chuckled.

**We got closer to the gates. The howling was so loud now it shook the ground at my feet, but I still couldn't figure out where it was coming from.**

**Then, about fifty feet in front of us, the green mist shimmered. Standing just where the path split into three lanes was an enormous shadowy monster.**

**I hadn't seen it before because it was half transparent, like the dead. Until it moved, it blended with whatever was behind it. Only its eyes and teeth looked solid. And it was staring straight at me.**

**My jaw hung open. All I could think to say was, "He's a Rottweiler."**

"Wow" Thalia said shaking her head "Only Kelp Head."

Everyone, including Percy, laughed.

**I'd always imagined Cerberus as a big black mastiff (A/N: honestly so did I) . But he was obviously a purebred Rottweiler, except of course that he was twice the size of a woolly mammoth, mostly invisible, and had three heads.**

**The dead walked right up to him-no fear at all. The ATTENDANT ON DUTY lines parted on either side of him. The EZ DEATH spirits walked right between his front paws and under his belly, which they could do without even crouching.**

**"I'm starting to see him better," I muttered. "Why is that?"**

**"I think …" Annabeth moistened her lips. "I'm afraid it's because we're getting closer to being dead."**

"Greeeeeeeeeeeeat" Athena and Poseidon said.

**The dog's middle head craned toward us. It sniffed the air and growled.**

**"It can smell the living," I said.**

**"But that's okay," Grover said, trembling next to me. "Because we have a plan."**

**"Right," Annabeth said. I'd never heard her voice sound quite so small. "A plan."**

**We moved toward the monster.**

**The middle head snarled at us, then barked so loud my eyeballs rattled.**

**"Can you understand it?" I asked Grover.**

**"Oh yeah," he said. "I can understand it."**

**"What's it saying?"**

**"I don't think humans have a four-letter word that translates, exactly."**

A few weak chuckles were heard.

**I took the big stick out of my backpack-a bedpost I'd broken off Crusty's Safari Deluxe floor model. I held it up, and tried to channel happy dog thoughts toward Cerberus-Alpo commercials, cute little puppies, fire hydrants. I tried to smile, like I wasn't about to die.**

**"Hey, Big Fella," I called up. "I bet they don't play with you much."**

**"GROWWWLLLL!"**

**"Good boy," I said weakly.**

"Please don't eat him...please don't eat him" Poseidon chanted.

**I waved the stick. The dog's middle head followed the movement. The other two heads trained their eyes on me, completely ignoring the spirits. I had Cerberus's undivided attention. I wasn't sure that was a good thing.**

"It's not" Poseidon said.

**"Fetch!" I threw the stick into the gloom, a good solid throw. I heard it go ker-sploosh in the River Styx.**

"Fail!" a lot of people said and everyone, except for Poseidona nd Athena, laughed.

**Cerberus glared at me, unimpressed. His eyes were baleful and cold.**

**So much for the plan.**

**Cerberus was now making a new kind of growl, deeper down in his three throats.**

**"Um," Grover said. "Percy?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"I just thought you'd want to know."**

**"Yeah?"**

**"Cerberus? He's saying we've got ten seconds to pray to the god of our choice. After that… well … he's hungry."**

**"Wait!" Annabeth said. She started rifling through her pack.**

"I'm glad she had this "Percy said and Grover nodded.

**Uh-oh, I thought.**

"You have so much faith in me" Annabeth said sarcastically.

**"Five seconds," Grover said. "Do we run now?"**

**Annabeth produced a red rubber ball the size of a grapefruit. It was labeled WATERLAND, DENVER, CO. Before I could stop her, she raised the ball and marched straight up to Cerberus.**

**She shouted, "See the ball? You want the ball, Cerberus? Sit!"**

Hades and Nico snorted.

"He's a vicious three-headed dog that guards the Underworld...he's not gonna listen to a mere mortal" Hades said.

**Cerberus looked as stunned as we were.**

**All three of his heads cocked sideways. Six nostrils dilated.**

**"Sit!" Annabeth called again.**

**I was sure that any moment she would become the world's largest Milkbone dog biscuit.**

**But instead, Cerberus licked his three sets of lips, shifted on his haunches, and sat, immediately crushing a dozen spirits who'd been passing underneath him in the EZ DEATH line. The spirits made muffled hisses as they dissipated, like the air let out of tires.**

Nico and Hades's jaws, along with others' , dropped.

"You were saying?" Annabeth said.

**Annabeth said, "Good boy!"**

**She threw Cerberus the ball.**

**He caught it in his middle mouth. It was barely big enough for him to chew, and the other heads started snapping at the middle, trying to get the new toy.**

**"Drop it.'" Annabeth ordered.**

**Cerberus's heads stopped fighting and looked at her. The ball was wedged between two of his teeth like a tiny piece of gum. He made a loud, scary whimper, then dropped the ball, now slimy and bitten nearly in half, at Annabeth's feet.**

"He must like you" Nico said.

**"Good boy." She picked up the ball, ignoring the monster spit all over it.**

**She turned toward us. "Go now. EZ DEATH line-it's faster."**

**I said, "But-"**

**"Now.'" She ordered, in the same tone she was using on the dog.**

**Grover and I inched forward warily.**

**Cerberus started to growl.**

"But he doesn't like Percy and Grover" Thalia said.

Everyone laughed.

**"Stay!" Annabeth ordered the monster. "If you w****ant the ball,**** stay!"**

**Cerberus whimpered, but he stayed where he was.**

**"What about you?" I asked Annabeth as we passed her.**

**"I know what I'm doing, Percy," she muttered. "At least, I'm pretty sure… ."**

"Reassuring" Athena said.

**Grover and I walked between the monster's legs.**

**Please, Annabeth, I prayed. Don't tell him to sit again.**

Everyone chuckled.

**We made it through. Cerberus wasn't any less scary-looking from the back.**

**Annabeth said, "Good dog!"**

**She held up the tattered red ball, and probably came to the same conclusion I did-if she rewarded Cerberus, there'd be nothing left for another trick.**

**She threw the ball anyway. The monster's left mouth immediately snatched it up, only to be attacked by the middle head, while the right head moaned in protest.**

**While the monster was distracted, Annabeth walked briskly under its belly and joined us at the metal detector.**

**"How did you do that?" I asked her, amazed.**

**"Obedience school," she said breathlessly, and I was surprised to see there were tears in her eyes. "When I was little, at my dad's house, we had a Doberman… ."**

"Why are you crying?" Hades asked.

Annabeth shook her head.

**"Never mind that," Grover said, tugging at my shirt. "Come on!"**

**We were about to bolt through the EZ DEATH line when Cerberus moaned pitifully from all three mouths. Annabeth stopped.**

**She turned to face the dog, which had done a one-eighty to look at us.**

**Cerberus panted expectantly, the tiny red ball in pieces in a puddle of drool at its feet.**

**"Good boy," Annabeth said, but her voice sounded melancholy and uncertain.**

**The monster's heads turned sideways, as if worried about her.**

**"I'll bring you another ball soon," Annabeth promised faintly. "Would you like that?"**

**The monster whimpered. I didn't need to speak dog to know Cerberus was still waiting for the ball.**

**"Good dog. I'll come visit you soon. I-I promise." Annabeth turned to us. "Let's go."**

Annabeth snuggled closer to Percy.

"I never got to go back" she said sadly.

"We'll go when we're done reading these books" Percy promised.

Annabeth's eyes widened.

"Really?" she asked.

"Of course" Percy said.

"I love you!" she threw her arms around her boyfriend and gave him a full fledged kiss on the lips.

Aphrodite was squirming in her seat.

"I love you too" Percy said.

"Best boyfriend ever!" Annabeth said and snuggled closer to him.

"Anything for you...my Princess" Percy said.

Annabeth's smile stretched from ear to ear.

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" All the girls cooed.

"He's willing to go to the Underworld for her!" Piper said.

"How sweet!" Silena said.

"Percy" Travis said "Why do you have to make the rest of us look bad?"

Everyone laughed.

**Grover and I pushed through the metal detector, which immediately screamed and set off flashing red lights. "Unauthorized possessions! Magic detected!"**

**Cerberus started to bark.**

**We burst through the EZ DEATH gate, which started even more alarms blaring, and raced into the Underworld.**

**A few minutes later, we were hiding, out of breath, in the rotten trunk of an immense black tree as security ghouls scuttled past, yelling for backup from the Furies.**

"I don't like back up" Percy said.

**Grover murmured, "Well, Percy, what have we learned today?"**

**"That three-headed dogs prefer red rubber balls over sticks?"**

"Who would've guessed?" Nico asked.

**"No," Grover told me. "We've learned that your plans really, really bite!"**

"We knew that!" Thalia joked and waved her hand dismissavely.

**I wasn't sure about that. I thought maybe Annabeth and I had both had the right idea. Even here in the Underworld, everybody-even monsters-needed a little attention once in a while.**

**I thought about that as we waited for the ghouls to pass. I pretended not to see Annabeth wipe a tear from her cheek as she listened to the mournful keening of Cerberus in the distance, longing for his new friend.**

"I'll be back buddy" Annabeth said softly.

"I haven't read yet!" Leo said and took the book from his brother and began to read the next chapter.

* * *

**i hope that was enough percabeth fluff...im trying. i might be adding some thalico too;) check out my poll and other stories! I have a new one! its called...**

** Our Families Are What!  
What will happen when the mortal and immortal families of our Camp Half-Blood counselors combine? Mortal families come and spend a summer with some of our favorite demigod heros! Percabeth, Thalico (a little), Traetie, and others. Rated T cause I'm a paranoid PJO freak! Also some other genres...family, friendship and hurt/comfort. maybe a little OOC.**

**check it out please!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	24. We Find Out The Truth, Sort Of

**woo hoo! 2 chapters in a day! so its like 11:30 p.m here so im gonna be lazy and not have a big authors note kay? I like Hades as a god so i figured id give hime some happiness! hope y'all like it:)  
...**

**disclaimer:**

**Me: everyone! I'm free! I escaped!:D**

**Percy, Thalia, and Nico: We're coming for you author (not saying my name...im not that dumb!)**

**Me: *pales and runs away* I do not own PJO...don't kill me! reviewers help me!**

**...what will happen to the author of this story? find out...next chapter;)**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

**"We find out the truth, sort of" Leo read.**

"How do you sorta find out the truth?" Jason asked.

"We didn't find out the whole truth" Pecy explained.

"Ahhhhh" almost everyone said.

**Imagine the largest concert crowd you've ever seen, a football field packed with a million fans.**

**Now imagine a field a million times that big, packed with people, and imagine the electricity has gone out, and there is no noise, no light, no beach ball bouncing around over the crowd. Something tragic has happened backstage. Whispering masses of people are just milling around in the shadows, waiting for a concert that will never start.**

"Depressing" Thalia commented and Nico nodded.

**If you can picture that, you have a pretty good idea what the Fields of Asphodel looked like. The black grass had been trampled by eons of dead feet. A warm, moist wind blew like the breath of a swamp. Black trees-Grover told me they were poplars-grew in clumps here and there.**

"Not much but we have some life" Nico said.

"I still can't believe you make my daughter live there Hades!" Demeter said.

Hades glared at her but his gaze softened.

"You're right" Hades said and Apollo, who had been taking a drink of lemonade, did a spit take and started choking.

"Huh?" Demeter said but Hades ignored her and turned to his "wife".

"I'm sorry I made you live down there Persephone" Hades said "You were just so pretty and I hate being alone down there. I release you from the Underworld."

A dark shadow flew out of Persephone and her dress changed from a dark, colorless dress to a beautiful dress with beautiful colors.

Hades let his head hang.

Persephone turned to thank the Lord of the Dead but the words caught in her throat when she saw how sad he was.

Demeter was shocked.

"Hades?" Persephone said and Hades looked at her, eyes brimming with tears "you've done so much to make me happy down there."

No one knew where she was going with this.

"I'm sorry Mother" the goddess of Springtime said "Hades, I would like to continue being your wife."

Hades looked at her

"Really?" he asked a little flame of hope biulding inside of him.

Persephone nodded and Hades smiled, a real smile filled with happiness and joy. His eyes sparkled with laughter and there was nothing of the God that could show he was God of the Dead, he looked so alive.

"Thank you Persephone!" Hades said as she hugged him.

Another loveseat came out of nowhere and Hades and Persephone sat in it together.

Demeter smiled, now she could accept him because her daughter chose it and she saw that Hades did have a heart.

Hera was beaming! She would ask the newly renewed couple of she could make a renewing-their-vows ceremony.

**The cavern ceiling was so high above us it might've been a bank of storm clouds, except for the stalactites, which glowed faint gray and looked wickedly pointed. I tried not to imagine they'd fall on us at any moment, but dotted around the fields were several that had fallen and impaled themselves in the black grass. I guess the dead didn't have to worry about little hazards like being speared by stalactites the size of booster rockets.**

Everyone laughed.

**Annabeth, Grover, and I tried to blend into the crowd, keeping an eye out for security ghouls. I couldn't help looking for familiar faces among the spirits of Asphodel, but the dead are hard to look at. Their faces shimmer. They all look slightly angry or confused. They will come up to you and speak, but their voices sound like chatter, like bats twittering. Once they realize you can't understand them, they frown and move away.**

**The dead aren't scary. They're just sad.**

"It is a bit depressing down there" Nico said.

**We crept along, following the line of new arrivals that snaked from the main gates toward a black-tented pavilion with a banner that read:**

**JUDGMENTS FOR ELYSIUM AND ETERNAL DAMNATION**

**Welcome, Newly Deceased!**

"I don't think welcome is the right word" Leo interrupted his own reading.

**Out the back of the tent came two much smaller lines.**

**To the left, spirits flanked by security ghouls were marched down a rocky path toward the Fields of Punishment, which glowed and smoked in the distance, a vast, cracked wasteland with rivers of lava and minefields and miles of barbed wire separating the different torture areas. Even from far away, I could see people being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music. I could just make out a tiny hill, with the ant-size figure of Sisyphus struggling to move his boulder to the top. And I saw worse tortures, too-things I don't want to describe.**

Everyone shivered.

**The line coming from the right side of the judgment pavilion was much better. This one led down toward a small valley surrounded by walls-a gated community, which seemed to be the only happy part of the Underworld. Beyond the security gate were neighborhoods of beautiful houses from every time period in history, Roman villas and medieval castles and Victorian mansions. Silver and gold flowers bloomed on the lawns. The grass rippled in rainbow colors. I could hear laughter and smell barbecue cooking.**

**Elysium.**

"That's where we're going" Percy said and looked to all the demigods he fought with in the Titan War.

They nodded.

**In the middle of that valley was a glittering blue lake, with three small islands like a vacation resort in the Bahamas. The Isles of the Blest, for people who had chosen to be reborn three times, and three times achieved Elysium. Immediately I knew that's where I wanted to go when I died.**

"Who doesn't want to go there?" Clarisse said and Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Jason, Katie and Travis raised their hands.

"If I choose to be reborn I might not be able to be with Percy again "Annabeth said.

"I'm okay with just Elysium if it means me and Annabeth can stay together" Percy said.

The other couples nodded.

**"That's what it's all about," Annabeth said, like she was reading my thoughts. "That's the place for heroes."**

**But I thought of how few people there were in Elysium, how tiny it was compared to the Fields of Asphodel or even the Fields of Punishment. So few people did good in their lives. It was depressing.**

"Yeah it is" a Goddess said.

Hermes had a bag of mail appear in his lap and he started passing mail out to the Olympians present.

**We left the judgment pavilion and moved deeper into the Asphodel Fields. It got darker. The colors faded from our clothes. The crowds of chattering spirits began to thin.**

**After a few miles of walking, we began to hear a familiar screech in the distance. Looming on the horizon was a palace of glittering black obsidian. Above the parapets swirled three dark batlike creatures: the Furies. I got the feeling they were waiting for us.**

**"I suppose it's too late to turn back," Grover said wistfully.**

**"We'll be okay." I tried to sound confident.**

"It didn't work by the way" Annabeth said.

**"Maybe we should search some of the other places first," Grover suggested. "Like, Elysium, for instance …"**

"Nice one Goat Boy" Thalia said and everyoe laughed.

**"Come on, goat boy." Annabeth grabbed his arm.**

**Grover yelped. His sneakers sprouted wings and his legs shot forward, pulling him away from Annabeth. He landed flat on his back in the grass.**

**"Grover," Annabeth chided. "Stop messing around."**

**"But I didn't-"**

Everyone looked confused.

**He yelped again. His shoes were flapping like crazy now. They levitated off the ground and started dragging him away from us.**

**"Maia!" he yelled, but the magic word seemed to have no effect. "Maia, already! Nine-one-one! Help!"**

"Maia" Hermes had to say for his shoes to put him down.

**I got over being stunned and made a grab for Grover's hand, but too late. He was picking up speed, skidding downhill like a bobsled.**

**We ran after him.**

**Annabeth shouted, "Untie the shoes!"**

"That's almost impossible to do when being dragged against you will" Grover said.

"Sorry" Annabeth said.

**It was a smart idea, but I guess it's not so easy when your shoes are pulling you along feetfirst at full speed. Grover tried to sit up, but he couldn't get close to the laces.**

**We kept after him, trying to keep him in sight as he ripped between the legs of spirits who chattered at him in annoyance.**

"Like it matters" Nico said.

**I was sure Grover was going to barrel straight through the gates of Hades's palace, but his shoes veered sharply to the right and dragged him in the opposite direction.**

**The slope got steeper. Grover picked up speed. Annabeth and I had to sprint to keep up. The cavern walls narrowed on either side, and I realized we'd entered some kind of side tunnel. No black grass or trees now, just rock underfoot, and the dim light of the stalactites above.**

Hades, Nico, and Persephone paled, all knowing what it was.

"Is it..." Persephone said and gulped.

"Tarturas?" Hades asked.

Percy nodded.

Everyone paled then.

**"Grover!" I yelled, my voice echoing. "Hold on to something!"**

**"What?" he yelled back.**

**He was grabbing at gravel, but there was nothing big enough to slow him down.**

**The tunnel got darker and colder. The hairs on my arms bristled. It smelled evil down here. It made me think of things I shouldn't even know about-blood spilled on an ancient stone altar, the foul breath of a murderer.**

**Then I saw what was ahead of us, and I stopped dead in my tracks.**

**The tunnel widened into a huge dark cavern, and in the middle was a chasm the size of a city block.**

"This is bad" Athena murmered and snuggled into Poseidon who put his arm around her, attempting to comfort her.

"They're going to get out...they're going to get out" he chanted, but it sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

**Grover was sliding straight toward the edge.**

**"Come on, Percy!" Annabeth yelled, tugging at my wrist.**

**"But that's-"**

**"I know!" she shouted. "The place you described in your dream! But Grover's going to fall if we don't catch him." She was right, of course. Grover's predicament got me moving again.**

**He was yelling, clawing at the ground, but the winged shoes kept dragging him toward the pit, and it didn't look like we could possibly get to him in time.**

"Are the shoes cursed?" Apollo asked and everyone looked to Luke.

Luke put his hands up in defense.

"This is the future! I have no clue!" he said.

**What saved him were his hooves.**

**The flying sneakers had always been a loose fit on him, and finally Grover hit a big rock and the left shoe came flying off. It sped into the darkness, down into the chasm. The right shoe kept tugging him along, but not as fast. Grover was able to slow himself down by grabbing on to the big rock and using it like an anchor.**

**He was ten feet from the edge of the pit when we caught him and hauled him back up the slope. The other winged shoe tugged itself off, circled around us angrily and kicked our heads in protest before flying off into the chasm to join its twin.**

"Rude shoes" someone commented.

**We all collapsed, exhausted, on the obsidian gravel. My limbs felt like lead. Even my backpack seemed heavier, as if somebody had filled it with rocks.**

Athena's mind began to race.

_"Why is the bag so heavy now?"_ she thought "_could it be that Ares somehow charmed the bag to carry the bolt when he got Hades? Did Ares have the bolt? Was he the lightning thief?"_

**Grover was scratched up pretty bad. His hands were bleeding. His eyes had gone slit-pupiled, goat style, the way they did whenever he was terrified.**

**"I don't know how …" he panted. "I didn't…"**

**"Wait," I said. "Listen."**

**I heard something-a deep whisper in the darkness.**

"Kronos" a few murmered.

**Another few seconds, and Annabeth said, "Percy, this place-"**

**"Shh." I stood.**

**The sound was getting louder, a muttering, evil voice from far, far below us. Coming from the pit.**

**Grover sat up. "Wh-what's that noise?"**

**Annabeth heard it too, now. I could see it in her eyes. "Tartarus. The entrance to Tartarus." I uncapped Anaklusmos.**

**The bronze sword expanded, gleaming in the darkness, and the evil voice seemed to falter, just for a moment, before resuming its chant.**

**I could almost make out words now, ancient, ancient words, older even than Greek. As if …**

**"Magic," I said.**

**"We have to get out of here," Annabeth said.**

"Please" Poseidon and Athena said.

**Together, we dragged Grover to his hooves and started back up the tunnel. My legs wouldn't move fast enough. My backpack weighed me down. The voice got louder and angrier behind us, and we broke into a run.**

**Not a moment too soon.**

**A cold blast of wind pulled at our backs, as if the entire pit were inhaling. For a terrifying moment, I lost ground, my feet slipping in the gravel. If we'd been any closer to the edge, we would've been sucked in.**

**We kept struggling forward, and finally reached the top of the tunnel, where the cavern widened out into the Fields of Asphodel. The wind died. A wail of outrage echoed from deep in the tunnel. Something was not happy we'd gotten away.**

"That something being Kronos" Poseidon said.

**"What was that?" Grover panted, when we'd collapsed in the relative safety of a black poplar grove. "One of Hades's pets?"**

"No...my pets aren't afraid to show themselves" Hades said.

**Annabeth and I looked at each other. I could tell she was nursing an idea, probably the same one she'd gotten during the taxi ride to L.A., but she was too scared to share it. That was enough to terrify me.**

**I capped my sword, put the pen back in my pocket. "Let's keep going." I looked at Grover. "Can you walk?"**

**He swallowed. "Yeah, sure. I never liked those shoes, anyway."**

There was a few weak chuckles.

**He tried to sound brave about it, but he was trembling as badly as Annabeth and I were. Whatever was in that pit was nobody's pet. It was unspeakably old and powerful. Even Echidna hadn't given me that feeling. I was almost relieved to turn my back on that tunnel and head toward the palace of Hades.**

"Kronos is much worse than Echidna" Zeus said.

**Almost.**

**The Furies circled the parapets, high in the gloom. The outer walls of the fortress glittered black, and the two-story-tall bronze gates stood wide open.**

**Up close, I saw that the engravings on the gates were scenes of death. Some were from modern times-an atomic bomb exploding over a city, a trench filled with gas mask-wearing soldiers, a line of African famine victims waiting with empty bowls-but all of them looked as if they'd been etched into the bronze thousands of years ago. I wondered if I was looking at prophecies that had come true.**

"You are" Hades said.

"Nice to know" Percy said.

**Inside the courtyard was the strangest garden I'd ever seen. Multicolored mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, and weird luminous plants grew without sunlight. Precious jewels made up for the lack of flowers, piles of rubies as big as my fist, clumps of raw diamonds. Standing here and there like frozen party guests were Medusa's garden statues- petrified children, satyrs, and centaurs-all smiling grotesquely.**

"Nice plants" a Stoll said.

"I can't grow real ones" Persephone said.

"We'll change that" Hades said and Persephone smiled at him.

**In the center of the garden was an orchard of pomegranate trees, their orange blooms neon bright in the dark. "The garden of Persephone," Annabeth said. "Keep walking."**

**I understood why she wanted to move on. The tart smell of those pomegranates was almost overwhelming. I had a sudden desire to eat them, but then I remembered the story of Persephone. One bite of Underworld food, and we would never be able to leave. I pulled Grover away to keep him from picking a big juicy one.**

"Thanks Perce "Grover said.

"No problem" Percy replied.

**We walked up the steps of the palace, between black columns, through a black marble portico, and into the house of Hades. The entry hall had a polished bronze floor, which seemed to boil in the reflected torchlight. There was no ceiling, just the cavern roof, far above. I guess they never had to worry about rain down here.**

**Every side doorway was guarded by a skeleton in military gear. Some wore Greek armor, some British redcoat uniforms, some camouflage with tattered American flags on the shoulders. They carried spears or muskets or M-16s. None of them bothered us, but their hollow eye sockets followed us as we walked down the hall, toward the big set of doors at the opposite end.**

"Creepy" Chris said.

**Two U.S. Marine skeletons guarded the doors. They grinned down at us, rocket-propelled grenade launchers held across their chests.**

"You sure do have a lot of war vets there" Ares said.

Hades shrugged.

"They look tougher" he replied.

**"You know," Grover mumbled, "I bet Hades doesn't have trouble with door-to-door salesmen."**

There were a few chuckles and a few laughs.

**My backpack weighed a ton now. **

"What is up with the bag? That's the second time it was mentioned!" Rachel said.

"You'll see" Percy said and winked.

"I ahte those words" Frank said and everyone nodded in agreement.

**I couldn't figure out why. I wanted to open it, check to see if I had somehow picked up a stray bowling ball, but this wasn't the time.**

"You shoul have" Annabeth murmered in her boyfriend's ear.

**"Well, guys," I said. "I suppose we should … knock?"**

**A hot wind blew down the corridor, and the doors swung open. The guards stepped aside.**

**"I guess that means entrez-vous," Annabeth said.**

"You speak french?" Piper asked.

"Not really" Annabeth admitted.

"I can!" Silena said and Piper nodded.

"I can too!" she said.

"Well your mother is Goddess of Love and France is like the capital of Love!" Leo said.

**The room inside looked just like in my dream, except this time the throne of Hades was occupied.**

**He was the third god I'd met, but the first who really struck me as godlike.**

Hades smiled smugly.

**He was at least ten feet tall, for one thing, and dressed in black silk robes and a crown of braided gold. His skin was albino white, his hair shoulder-length and jet black. He wasn't bulked up like Ares, but he radiated power. He lounged on his throne of fused human bones, looking lithe, graceful, and dangerous as a panther.**

"Keep that in mind Nephew" Hades said.

**I immediately felt like he should be giving the orders. He knew more than I did. He should be my master. **

""Yes...think that young hero" Hades smiled wickedly and people looked at him weird.

"Your dad is creepy" Chris whispered to Nico.

"Well he is the God of the Dead" Nico said and Chris shrugged.

**Then I told myself to snap out of it.**

**Hades's aura was affecting me, just as Ares's had. The Lord of the Dead resembled pictures I'd seen of Adolph Hitler, or Napoleon, or the terrorist leaders who direct suicide bombers. Hades had the same intense eyes, the same kind of mesmerizing, evil charisma.**

"You compared me to some of the worst people of history" Hades said.

**"You are brave to come here, Son of Poseidon," he said in an oily voice. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish."**

"What do you mean 'After what you have done to me'?"Athena asked the Lord of the Dead.

"I don't know, this is in the future!" Hades said.

**Numbness crept into my joints, tempting me to lie down and just take a little nap at Hades's feet. Curl up here and sleep forever.**

"Please don't" Poseidon said.

**I fought the feeling and stepped forward. I knew what I had to say. "Lord and Uncle, I come with two requests."**

**Hades raised an eyebrow. When he sat forward in his throne, shadowy faces appeared in the folds of his black robes, faces of torment, as if the garment were stitched of trapped souls from the Fields of Punishment, trying to get out. The ADHD part of me wondered, off-task, whether the rest of his clothes were made the same way. What horrible things would you have to do in your life to get woven into Hades's underwear?**

Everyone laughed.

"Only you Kelp Head" Thalia said.

Percy didn't answer cause he was to busy laughing.

**"Only two requests?" Hades said. "Arrogant child. As if you have not already taken enough. Speak, then. It amuses me not to strike you dead yet."**

**I swallowed. This was going about as well as I'd feared.**

"Lets hope it gets better" Poseidon grumbled "unlikely but lets hope."

**I glanced at the empty, smaller throne next to Hades's. It was shaped like a black flower, gilded with gold. I wished Queen Persephone were here. I recalled something in the myths about how she could calm her husband's moods. But it was summer. Of course, Persephone would be above in the world of light with her mother, the goddess of agriculture, Demeter. Her visits, not the tilt of the planet, create the seasons.**

"He's fianally getting it!" Nico said.

"Wait! What will Persephone choosing to stay my wife do to the seasons?" Hades asked.

"I didn't think about that" Persephone said "I'll figure it out."

**Annabeth cleared her throat. Her finger prodded me in the back.**

**"Lord Hades," I said. "Look, sir, there can't be a war among the gods. It would be … bad."**

"Real bad" Hermes said.

**"Really bad," Grover added helpfully.**

"I think like the goat?" Hermes asked "cool!"

He gave Grover a high-five.

**"Return Zeus's master bolt to me," I said. "Please, sir. Let me carry it to Olympus."**

**Hades's eyes grew dangerously bright. "You dare keep up this pretense, after what you have done?"**

**I glanced back at my friends. They looked as confused as I was.**

**"Um … Uncle," I said. "You keep saying 'after what you've done.' What exactly have I done?"**

"That's what we're wondering!" Athena said.

**The throne room shook with a tremor so strong, they probably felt it upstairs in Los Angeles. Debris fell from the cavern ceiling. Doors burst open all along the walls, and skeletal warriors marched in, hundreds of them, from every time period and nation in Western civilization. They lined the perimeter of the room, blocking the exits.**

"Not good" Connor said.

"Ya think?" Nico asked.

**Hades bellowed, "Do you think I want war, godling?"**

**I wanted to say, Well, these guys don't look like peace activists. But I thought that might be a dangerous answer.**

"Smart" Nico said.

**"You are the Lord of the Dead," I said carefully. "A war would expand your kingdom, right?"**

**"A typical thing for my brothers to say! Do you think I need more subjects? Did you not see the sprawl of the Asphodel Fields?"**

**"Well…"**

**"Have you any idea how much my kingdom has swollen in this past century alone, how many subdivisions I've had to open?"**

**I opened my mouth to respond, but Hades was on a roll now.**

**"More security ghouls," he moaned. "Traffic problems at the judgment pavilion. Double overtime for the staff. I used to be a rich god, Percy Jackson. I control all the precious metals under the earth. But my expenses!"**

**"Charon wants a pay raise," I blurted, just remembering the fact. As soon as I said it, I wished I could sew up my mouth.**

"Seaweed Brain" Annabeth said and shook her head.

"ADHD!" Percy complained.

**"Don't get me started on Charon!" Hades yelled. "He's been impossible ever since he discovered Italian suits! Problems everywhere, and I've got to handle all of them personally. The commute time alone from the palace to the gates is enough to drive me insane! And the dead just keep arriving. No, godling. I need no help getting subjects! I did not ask for this war."**

**"But you took Zeus's master bolt."**

**"Lies!" More rumbling. Hades rose from his throne, towering to the height of a football goalpost. "Your father may fool Zeus, boy, but I am not so stupid. I see his plan."**

**"His plan?"**

**"You were the thief on the winter solstice," he said. "Your father thought to keep you his little secret. He directed you into the throne room on Olympus, You took the master bolt and my helm. Had I not sent my Fury to discover you at Yancy Academy, Poseidon might have succeeded in hiding his scheme to start a war. But now you have been forced into the open. You will be exposed as Poseidon's thief, and I will have my helm back!"**

"MY HELM IS MISSING?!" Hades yelled and his Helm appeared on his lap.

"You'll get it back Uncle" Percy said.

**Annabethth spoke. I could tell her mind was going a million miles an hour. "Lord Hades, your helm of darkness is missing, too?"**

**"Do not play innocent with me, girl. You and the satyr have been helping this hero-coming here to threaten me in Poseidon's name, no doubt-to bring me an ultimatum. Does Poseidon think I can be blackmailed into supporting him?"**

"No because I know you're smarter than that actually" Poseidon said.

"Thanks" Hades said.

**"No!" I said. "Poseidon didn't-I didn't-"**

**"I have said nothing of the helm's disappearance," Hades snarled, "because I had no illusions that anyone on Olympus would offer me the slightest justice, the slightest help. **

The 12 Olympians who had cabins at Camp Half-Blood and thrones on Mount Olympus looed down, ashamed.

**I can ill afford for word to get out that my most powerful weapon of fear is missing. So I searched for you myself, and when it was clear you were coming to me to deliver your threat, I did not try to stop you."**

**"You didn't try to stop us? But-"**

**"Return my helm now, or I will stop death," Hades threatened. "That is my counterproposal. I will open the earth and have the dead pour back into the world. I will make your lands a nightmare. And you, Percy Jackson-your skeleton will lead my army out of Hades."**

"I won't let that happen" Poseidon growled.

**The skeletal soldiers all took one step forward, making their weapons ready.**

**At that point, I probably should have been terrified. The strange thing was, I felt offended. Nothing gets me angrier than being accused of something I didn't do. I've had a lot of experience with that.**

"That and people hurting my friends" Percy said.

**"You're as bad as Zeus," I said. "You think I stole from you? That's why you sent the Furies after me?"**

**"Of course," Hades said.**

**"And the other monsters?"**

**Hades curled his lip. "I had nothing to do with them. I wanted no quick death for you-I wanted you brought before me alive so you might face every torture in the Fields of Punishment. Why do you think I let you enter my kingdom so easily?"**

"Easily?" everyone asked in disbelief.

**"Easily?"**

**"Return my property!"**

**"But I don't have your helm. I came for the master bolt."**

**"Which you already possess!" Hades shouted. "You came here with it, little fool, thinking you could you threaten me!"**

**"But I didn't!"**

**"Open your pack, then."**

Everyone leaned forward.

**A horrible feeling struck me. The weight in my backpack, like a bowling ball. It couldn't be….**

**I slung it off my shoulder and unzipped it. Inside was a two-foot-long metal cylinder, spiked on both ends, humming with energy.**

"I KNEW YOU STOLE MY MASTER LIGHTNING BOLT!" Zeus thundered.

"I didn't steal it! It was in the pack given to me by Ares...I had nothing to do with it!" Percy said.

Zeus glared at his immortal son.

"ARES!" he yelled and lightning flashed "HOW DARE YOU STEAL MY MASTER BOLT! I SHOULD GROUND YOU TO TARTURAS FOR A THOUSAND YEARS!"

Ares was pale and crouching in his seat as his father yelled at him.

Percy got up.

"Lord Zeus?" Zeus turned and faced his nephew "It's a little more complicated than that."

"Very well...we will continue to read then I will pass judgement" Zeus said and told Leo to read on.

**"Percy," Annabeth said. "How-"**

**"I-I don't know. I don't understand."**

**"You heroes are always the same," Hades said. "Your pride makes you foolish, thinking you could bring such a weapon before me. I did not ask for Zeus's master bolt, but since it is here, you will yield it to me. I am sure it will make an excellent bargaining tool. And now … my helm. Where is it?"**

**I was speechless. I had no helm. I had no idea how the master bolt had gotten into my backpack. I wanted to think Hades was pulling some kind of trick. Hades was the bad guy. But suddenly the world turned sideways. I realized I'd been played with. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades had been set at each other's throats by someone else. The master bolt had been in the backpack, and I'd gotten the backpack from …**

"Ares" a few people finished.

**"Lord Hades, wait," I said. "This is all a mistake."**

**"A mistake?" Hades roared.**

**The skeletons aimed their weapons. From high above, there was a fluttering of leathery wings, and the three Furies swooped down to perch on the back of their master's throne. The one with Mrs. Dodds's face grinned at me eagerly and flicked her whip.**

**"There is no mistake," Hades said. "I know why you have come-I know the real reason you brought the bolt. You came to bargain for her."**

**Hades loosed a ball of gold fire from his palm. It exploded on the steps in front of me, and there was my mother, frozen in a shower of gold, just as she was at the moment when the Minotaur began to squeeze her to death.**

"Sally" Poseidon whispered.

Paul took Sally's ahnd and held it.

**I couldn't speak. I reached out to touch her, but the light was as hot as a bonfire.**

**"Yes," Hades said with satisfaction. "I took her. I knew, Percy Jackson, that you would come to bargain with me eventually. Return my helm, and perhaps I will let her go. She is not dead, you know. Not yet. But if you displease me, that will change."**

"You will not touch her" Poseidon growled glaring at his brother.

Hades gulped.

**I thought about the pearls in my pocket. Maybe they could get me out of this. If I could just get my mom free …**

**"Ah, the pearls," Hades said, and my blood froze. "Yes, my brother and his little tricks. Bring them forth, Percy Jackson."**

**My hand moved against my will and brought out the pearls.**

**"Only three," Hades said. "What a shame. You do realize each only protects a single person. Try to take your mother, then, little godling. And which of your friends will you leave behind to spend eternity with me? Go on. Choose. Or give me the backpack and accept my terms."**

"Do neither" someone said.

**I looked at Annabeth and Grover. Their faces were grim.**

**"We were tricked," I told them. "Set up."**

**"Yes, but why?" Annabeth asked. "And the voice in the pit-"**

**"I don't know yet," I said. "But I intend to ask."**

**"Decide, boy!" Hades yelled.**

**"Percy." Grover put his hand on my shoulder. "You can't give him the bolt,"**

**"I know that."**

**"Leave me here," he said. "Use the third pearl on your mom."**

**"No!"**

**"I'm a satyr," Grover said. "We don't have souls like humans do. He can torture me until I die, but he won't get me forever. I'll just be reincarnated as a flower or something. It's the best way."**

**"No." Annabeth drew her bronze knife. "You two go on. Grover, you have to protect Percy. You have to get your searcher's license and start your quest for Pan. Get his mom out of here. I'll cover you. I plan to go down fighting."**

"Such good friends" Hestia said.

**"No way," Grover said. "I'm staying behind."**

**"Think again, goat boy," Annabeth said.**

"They're fighting over who stays behind" Hazel said.

"I love them" Percy said and smiled at Grover and Annabeth.

**"Stop it, both of you!" I felt like my heart was being ripped in two. They had both been with me through so much. I remembered Grover dive-bombing Medusa in the statue garden, and Annabeth saving us from Cerberus; we'd survived Hephaestus's Waterland ride, the St. Louis Arch, the Lotus Casino. I had spent thousands of miles worried that I'd be betrayed by a friend, but these friends would never do that. They had done nothing but save me, over and over, and now they wanted to sacrifice their lives for my mom.**

"We would never betray you Percy" Annabeth said.

"Never in a million years" Grover said.

**"I know what to do," I said. "Take these."**

**I handed them each a pearl.**

Annabeth held Percy's hand for reassurance.

**Annabeth said, "But, Percy …"**

**I turned and faced my mother. I desperately wanted to sacrifice myself and use the last pearl on her, but I knew what she would say. She would never allow it. I had to get the bolt back to Olympus and tell Zeus the truth. I had to stop the war. She would never forgive me if I saved her instead. I thought about the prophecy made at Half-Blood Hill, what seemed like a million years ago. You will fail to save what matters most in the end.**

**"I'm sorry," I told her. "I'll be back. I'll find a way."**

**The smug look on Hades's face faded. He said, "Godling … ?"**

**"I'll find your helm, Uncle," I told him. "I'll return it. Remember about Charon's pay raise."**

Everyone's palms met their faces.

"Seaweed Brain" Annabeth said.

**"Do not defy me-"**

**"And it wouldn't hurt to play with Cerberus once in a while. He likes red rubber balls."**

"Only you Perce" Nico said.

**"Percy Jackson, you will not-"**

**I shouted, "Now, guys!"**

**We smashed the pearls at our feet. For a scary moment, nothing happened.**

**Hades yelled, "Destroy them!"**

**The army of skeletons rushed forward, swords out, guns clicking to full automatic. The Furies lunged, their whips bursting into flame.**

Everyone sucked in a breath...

**Just as the skeletons opened fire, the pearl fragments at my feet exploded with a burst of green light and a gust of fresh sea wind. I was encased in a milky white sphere, which was starting to float off the ground.**

...and let it out.

**Annabeth and Grover were right behind me. Spears and bullets sparked harmlessly off the pearl bubbles as we floated up. Hades yelled with such rage, the entire fortress shook and I knew it was not going to be a peaceful night in L.A.**

**"Look up.'" Grover yelled. "We're going to crash!"**

**Sure enough, we were racing right toward the stalactites, which I figured would pop our bubbles and skewer us.**

**"How do you control these things?" Annabeth shouted.**

**"I don't think you do!" I shouted back.**

"Bad design" Hephaestus, Bekendorf and Leo said.

**We screamed as the bubbles slammed into the ceiling and … Darkness.**

"Your DEAD!" Apollo and Hermes wailed.

"Quit scaring Poseidon and Athena!" Artemis yelled at the two.

**Were we dead?**

**No, I could still feel the racing sensation. We were going up, right through solid rock as easily as an air bubble in water. That was the power of the pearls, I realized-What belongs to the sea will always return to the sea.**

"And the price was your mom" Annabeth said.

Percy nodded.

**For a few moments, I couldn't see anything outside the smooth walls of my sphere, then my pearl broke through on the ocean floor. The two other milky spheres, Annabeth and Grover, kept pace with me as we soared upward through the water. And-ker-blam!**

**We exploded on the surface, in the middle of the Santa Monica Bay, knocking a surfer off his board with an indignant, "Dude!"**

Everyone laughed.

**I grabbed Grover and hauled him over to a life buoy. I caught Annabeth and dragged her over too. A curious shark was circling us, a great white about eleven feet long.**

**I said, "Beat it."**

"No need to be rude to the shark!" Connor said.

**The shark turned and raced away.**

**The surfer screamed something about bad mushrooms and paddled away from us as fast as he could.**

Everyone laughed, the tension in the room gone.

**Somehow, I knew what time it was: early morning, June 21, the day of the summer solstice.**

"It's a child of Poseidon thing" Poseidon said.

**In the distance, Los Angeles was on fire, plumes of smoke rising from neighborhoods all over the city. There had been an earthquake, all right, and it was Hades's fault. He was probably sending an army of the dead after me right now.**

"Optimistic!" Nico said.

**But at the moment, the Underworld wasn't my biggest problem.**

**I had to get to shore. I had to get Zeus's thunderbolt back to Olympus. Most of all, I had to have a serious conversation with the god who'd tricked me.**

"Done" Leo said.

"I think we should have dinner now" Athena said.

"There is also some sugar cookies we can all decorate if you want" Demeter said and everyone got excited and left to eat dinner in the kitchen.

* * *

**2 chapters in a day! awesome! thanks to anyone who reviewed! now i must go to sleep. ._.zzzzzz *yawns* night night.**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	25. Pothena and Percabeth Fluff

**sorry it took so long! i was on vacation! **

**you know your a true PJO fan when you choose Sea World over Disney World or Universal Studios! LOL**

**review answers!:)**

**YJV: **I love the story! Please keep updating. I can't wait to read your next chapters. I like the part where Hades let Persephone free, then she chose to remain his wife. please update soon. :)  
**~i was hoping that people would like that part! I loved it! i try to make it look like nobody is really, truly bad.**

**Percabethlvrknowsall: **"Percy, why do have to make the rest of us look bad?"  
LOL  
**~i loved that part **

**please note: i am having writers block for Gods High School Is Hard! i need some good dares and truths for the next chapter please! now im going to update my other two PJO stories!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

Everyone filed into the dining room to eat a fantastic dinner made by Hestia and Demeter.

Chatter started up around the table.

"Three more days until Christmas!" Percy said and he got a lot of smiles.

"I can't believe you're going out with Poseidon Athena!" Apollo said.

Athena blushed.

"I didn't think I ever would either" Athena said.

"Yet, here we are" Poseidon said and smiled down at her.

"What about Amphitrite?" Hera asked.

Poseidon's face fell.

"I'll be back!" he popped out of the room leaving behind the fresh scent of a sea breeze.

"Well then" Hermes said.

"What caused you guys to lose control during the reading?" Piper asked the children of the Big Three.

Percy, Thalia and Nico shrugged.

"I hate being told what to do" Thalia said.

"I hate it when they call me a kid" Nico said gesturing to his cousins "I can do Death Breath and Ghost Boy but not kid."

"I don't like it when other people besides Annabeth call me Seaweed Brain" Percy said.

"I only jumped in because Nico got hurt" Bianca said "which reminds me...let me see it."

Nico let his sister unwrap the bandages around his arm.

The sword cut was a red, puffy line going across his arm like a band.

"It's fine" Bianca said.

"Sorry Nico" Thalia said.

Nico shrugged it off.

"It's fine Thals" he said.

Poseidon popped back in brushing peices of ceramic off of his self.

"That went...well" he said.

"Is that ceramic?" Athena asked and picked off a peice of seaweed off of him.

"Yeah...Amphitrite threw a ceramic pot of seaweed at me" Poseidon replied sheepishly "and she threw her ring at me. Then her and Triton left."

"I'm sure that when I get back her stuff'll be gone" Poseidon said.

"Is it really that easy to divorce a wife?" Leo asked.

"If you're a god" Hera said "mortals fill out papers."

"Speaking of marriage stuff" Hera said and turned to Hades and Persephone "Are you two wanting a proper wedding?"

Persephone looked to her husband.

"If Persephone wants one" Hades said and smiled at his wife/fiance.

"Sure" Persephone smiled.

Hera beamed.

"Oooooooooooooh!" Aphrodite squeled "Can I help plan it?!"

"Me too!" Piper and Silena said.

"I want to help!" Demeter argued.

"Let me help!" Rachel and Hestia said.

Persephone blushed.

"I choose flowers" she said and all the girls cheered.

"I wanna do the decorating" one said as Hera, Persephone, Piper, Silena, Hestia, Rachel and Demeter launched into planning.

Percy and Annabeth slipped out a while ago and Poseidon thought that now was a good time for him and Athena to leave.

* * *

**Percy and Annabeth**

Percy and Annabeth were walking down the road that was lit with blazing candles.

They heard the Muses playing in the distance.

They talked about random stuff as they walked.

"I can't wait to see Ares's face when we read about how you beat him" Annabeth laughed.

Percy threw his head back and laughed.

"That'll be hilarious" Percy said.

Annabeth found herself staring at her boyfriend as his hair flipped back when he threw is head back. His sea-green eyes sparkled with amusement.

Percy jumped up on a wall and held his arms out and balanced as he walked.

"Percy" Annabeth said shaking her head.

Percy laughed and continued to balance.

"Get back down here Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth laughed.

Percy jumped down and landed in front of his girlfriend.

He gave her a crooked smile before he leaned in to kiss her.

"I really love you" Percy said.

"I love you too" Annabeth said and her arms went around his neck as his arms went around her waist.

They pulled away after a while, breaking the kiss, and smiled at each other.

Percy led Annabeth down the road where they talked about anything and everything.

The moon sparkled over head.

* * *

**Poseidon and Athena**

Poseidon and Athena were walking hand in hand, swinging their arms slightly as they went.

"So..." Athena said "when did you start liking me?"

Poseidon smiled and looked down at her.

"Since Athens" he said smoothly.

"Really?" Athena said.

"Yeah" Poseidon answered "that's why I told your people that they would be granted safe sea passage and become great fishermen. I wanted your city to prosper."

"Thank you" Athena smiled.

"Your Welcome" Poseidon said "So how long have you liked me?"

Athena blushed.

"Since before Athens" she said.

"Really?" Poseidon asked.

Athena nodded.

"Actually the reason I chose to be a virgin goddess wasbecause you married Amphitrite" she said.

"I married Amphitrite because I thought you didn't like me" Poseidon said "Big mistake."

"Why?" Athena inquired.

"She just wanted to marry me because she wanted to be queen not because she loved me" Poseidon said "we never spent time together, when Triton was born she compleely ignored me and focused on him, even after he grew up, she was mean to the nymphs, we were always fighting, and she tried to kill Theseus and Percy."

"She did?" Athena asked, appalled.

"Yeah" Poseidon said glumly.

"Well I promise not to kill Percy or any other children as long as you don't kill mine" Athena said.

Poseidon laughed.

"Deal" he said and they continued their walk.

* * *

**pretty short chapter, i know! im on vacation give me a break! please check out the new poll. and i also have the next challenge...**

***silence as readers wait for it***

**What...does Quintus mean and in what language?**

**You MUST swear on the Styx that you knew the answer from memory and did not look in the books or on the internet!**

**Thats all for now folks!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	26. I Battle My Jerk Relative

**okay hey everyone!":) today i am actually sick after coming home from Orlando!:( so i'm going to be doing a lot of updating!:D**

**first things first the chapter dedication!This chapter is dedicated to the 8 or so people who told me the correct answer to the question, what does Quintus mean and in what language?, and swore ont he Styx they did it from memory! (some also swore on their PJO books! thats a huge! commitment! ;) ) i was VERY VERY picky on this and you had to give the EXACT answer.**

**The answer was...Quintus mean FIFTH in LATIN.**

**Now there were a few people who said it meant FIVE in Latin and there are some who said fifth/five in Greek. I didn't count those..sorry.**

**Now the people who answered correctly and swore!**

**Nicoannoyspercy! **(yes he does)!

**littlekittycat2012!**

**Louisa4533! **(love the Avenger story BTW;) )

**SilvermoonLove!**

**SaraiR!**

**MrsEDarcy! **(long time no chapter;) )

**puzzlingnerd57!**

**Jillianne!**

**The1andOnlyWiseGirl!**

**also to all the guests i didn't know names to!**

**thank you for answering!:) and a lot of you told me where the word Quintus came from;) over acheivers are awesome!**

**now for review answers!:D**

**HappyPanda25: **You realize if Poseidon and Athena get married it makes children of Athena and Poseidon step brothers and sisters so Annabeth and percy will be half bro and sis.  
**~i do realize this:) im a huge Pothena fan! i cleared it with my readers a while back and majority wanted pothena!:) so...also technically no demigods are realted! percy said so in the last olympian! the gods don't have DNA! silena and bekendorf are technically step bro and sis! it's only not okay when it's two kids who have the SAME godly parent!**

**allen r:** gee that was a easy deal for poseidon to make. considering he has never even threateed athenas kids lol.i  
**~i know it was easy! i couldn't think of anything else! i had to end the chapter somewhere**

**Percabethlvrknowsall: **YOUR ALIVE! I haven't from you for a week. I got worried. I thought that Apollo or Hermes authorknapped you.  
**~I am? *looks down* i am alive! haha i knew it! i was on vacation sorry. sounds like something Apollo and Hermes would do...right now actually its the demigods im worried about *looks around looking for the big three kids***

**arceethefirst: **holy shit wen did exy try to kill perce?  
**~idk! poseidon said it! lol it'll be in a story im doing called...the unwritten quest**

**thats it for reviews answers.**

**this is taking forever seeing as though i keep going into mad coughing fits! lol**

**...**

**disclaimer: (here we go)**

**Me: *out of breath from running* come on guys! if i promise to *mad coughing fit* to say a disclaimer for the rest of the chapters can you stop chasing me *mad coughing fit***

**Big Three Kids: *stops running* **

**Percy: maybe**

**Me: *coughs* i do not own PJO Rick Riordan does!**

**Thalia:keep it up and we won't hurt you**

**Nico: yup**

**All of them: *walks away***

**Me:Thank gods! *passes out***

**yay! happy ending...maybe._.**

* * *

"Who wants to read next?" Annabeth asked and surprisingly it was Travis who raised his hand.

"I want to!" he said.

"You can read?" Chris asked and gasped.

"Shut up" Travis grumbled "I learned from a child of Athena, Malcolm actually, when I was eight."

"Lee Fletcher taught me" Connor boasted.

"Learning from a child of Athena is better!" Travis smirked.

"Nuh uh!" Connor argued.

"You guys didn't learn together?" Katie asked.

"Nope!" they said together.

"I'm a year older than Connor so I learned first" Travis said.

""You mean you're not twins?!" Nico asked.

Everyone laughed.

"No I fell for their mom twice actually...kind of like Zeus with Jason and Thalia's mom and Hades with Nico and Bianca's" Hermes said.

"That's rare" Annabeth said.

"They were beautiful women!" they said.

""Your mother was amazing" Hermes told the Stolls "so was May."

"Can I read now?" Travis asked, even though he was smiling.

"Of course" Hermes said, now lost in memories.

**"I battle my jerk relative,"** Travis read.

"You're going down punk!" Ares said.

Percy didn't answer, but simply smirked.

**A Coast Guard boat picked us up, but they were too busy to keep us for long, or to wonder how three kids in street clothes had gotten out into the middle of the bay. There was a disaster to mop up. Their radios were jammed with distress calls.**

"Poor mortal don't know what's coming" Hestia said.

**They dropped us off at the Santa Monica Pier with towels around our shoulders and water bottles that said I'M A JUNIOR COAST GUARD! and sped off to save more people.**

**Our clothes were sopping wet, even mine. When the Coast Guard boat had appeared, I'd silently prayed they wouldn't pick me out of the water and find me perfectly dry, which might've raised some eyebrows. So I'd willed myself to get soaked. Sure enough, my usual waterproof magic had abandoned me. **

"Smart" Athena mused.

"I have my moments!" Percy said.

**I was also barefoot, because I'd given my shoes to Grover. Better the Coast Guard wonder why one of us was barefoot than wonder why one of us had hooves.**

"Smart move Kelp Head" Thalia joked.

"Why thank you dear cousin!" Percy said.

**After reaching dry land, we stumbled down the beach, watching the city burn against a beautiful sunrise. I felt as if I'd just come back from the dead-which I had. My backpack was heavy with Zeus's master bolt. My heart was even heavier from seeing my mother.**

Everyone looked down as Paul took Sally's hand.

**"I don't believe it," Annabeth said. "We went all that way-"**

**"It was a trick," I said. "A strategy worthy of Athena."**

"Hey" Athena warned.

"It'll explain!" Percy defened himself under the glare from Athena.

**"Hey," she warned.**

**"You get it, don't you?"**

**She dropped her eyes, her anger fading. "Yeah. I get it."**

"Well I don't!" Apollo, Hermes and Connor yelled.

A few palms met their owner's faces.

**"Well, I don't!" Grover complained. "Would somebody-"**

"Congratulations Connor! You and Grover share the same IQ level!" Katie said.

"I'm so proud of you buddy!" Travis said and wiped a fake tear away.

**"Percy …" Annabeth said. "I'm sorry about your mother. I'm so sorry…."**

**I pretended not to hear her. If I talked about my mother, I was going to start crying like a little kid.**

"Cry Baby" Ares said but before Percy or Poseidon could react Hera yelled at him and Aphrodite threw a shoe at him.

"ARES!" Hera yelled "If Hades was holding ME captive, which he better never do," warning glare sent to Hades from Zeus "how would you feel?!"

"Uh...bad?" Ares said uncertainly as he rubbed the spot where Aphrodite's shoe hit him.

"You're saying that as if you're not sure...son" Hera said, a hint of danger in her voice.

Ares looked a little pale and scared, fear mother!

"I would be very mad at Uncle Hades and I would be trying my damndest to get you back Mom!" Hephaestus said and Hera beamed at him.

"That is why you're my favorite son!" Hera said.

Hephaestus smirked at Ares.

Percy and Poseidon thought that now was the right time to douse their nephew/cousin with freezing Atlenatic salt water.

Ares didn't stayed silent.

**"The prophecy was right," I said. "You shall go west and face the god who has turned.' But it wasn't Hades. Hades didn't want war among the Big Three. Someone else pulled off the theft. Someone stole Zeus's master bolt, and Hades's helm, and framed me because I'm Poseidon's kid. Poseidon will get blamed by both sides. By sundown today, there will be a three-way war. And I'll have caused it."**

**Grover shook his head, mystified. "But who would be that sneaky? Who would want war that bad?"**

All heads turned to Ares, who was still crouching in his seat, soaking wet.

**I stopped in my tracks, looking down the beach. "Gee, let me think."**

**There he was, waiting for us, in his black leather duster and his sunglasses, an aluminum baseball bat propped on his shoulder. His motorcycle rumbled beside him, its headlight turning the sand red.**

**"Hey, kid," Ares said, seeming genuinely pleased to see me. "You were supposed to die."**

"Nice to see you too" Nico said.

**"You tricked me," I said. "You stole the helm and the master bolt."**

**Ares grinned. "Well, now, I didn't steal them personally. Gods taking each other's symbols of power-that's a big no-no. But you're not the only hero in the world who can run errands."**

"Who did it?" Athena asked and everyone looked at Clarisse.

"I didn't do it! I'm not stupid!" Clarisse said.

**"Who did you use? Clarisse? She was there at the winter solstice."**

**The idea seemed to amuse him. "Doesn't matter. The point is, kid, you're impeding the war effort. See, you've got to die in the Underworld. Then Old Seaweed will be mad at Hades for killing you. Corpse Breath will have Zeus's master bolt, so Zeus'll be mad at him. And Hades is still looking for this …"**

"Old Seaweed?" Poseidon asked.

"Corpse Breath?" Hades asked.

The Big Three, and their children, were now glaring at the God of War.

"Don't talk about my dad like that!" Percy, Bianca, Nico and Hazel said.

HHades and Poseidon felt a rush of pride watching their children.

Ares gulped, he'd seen the damage the children of his Father and two Uncles could do when they're mad.

**From his pocket he took out a ski cap-the kind bank robbers wear-and placed it between the handlebars of his bike. Immediately, the cap transformed into an elaborate bronze war helmet.**

Hades looked ready to murder Ares, so did nico, Bianc and Hazel.

Clarisse and Frank didn't know whether to stand up for their dad or not.

**"The helm of darkness," Grover gasped.**

**"Exactly," Ares said. "Now where was I? Oh yeah, Hades will be mad at both Zeus and Poseidon, because he doesn't know who took this. Pretty soon, we got a nice little three-way slugfest going."**

**"But they're your family!" Annabeth protested.**

**Ares shrugged. "Best kind of war. Always the bloodiest. Nothing like watching your relatives fight, I always say."**

Hera glared at Ares, being the Goddess of Family.

**"You gave me the backpack in Denver," I said. "The master bolt was in there the whole time."**

**"Yes and no," Ares said. "It's probably too complicated for your little mortal brain to follow, but the backpack is the master bolt's sheath, just morphed a bit. The bolt is connected to it, sort of like that sword you got, kid. It always returns to your pocket, right?"**

**I wasn't sure how Ares knew about that, but I guess a god of war had to make it his business to know about weapons.**

"Yup! I know what every demigod fights with!" Ares said.

"Prove it!" someone challened.

"A sword named Anaklusmos translated to Riptide, a bronze dagger given to you by Luke here, a sword called Backbiter, bow and arrow, hunting knives, spear that turns into a Mace canister, the sheild Aegis that turns into that lovely silver bracelet on your wrist (but you prefer your bow and arrows and shield), a Stygian Iron blade, and electic spear you named Maimer (though some call it Lamer), a dagger named Katropis, a lance or sword (depending on whether it lands on heads or tails when you flip it) made of Imperial Gold, a magic toolbelt, bow and arrows, a Roman spartha, hunting knives and bow and arrows, don't fight but when you do you grow dangerous plants, bronze swords, a simple broze sword, a sword you forged yourself, bad smelling perfume" Ares said as he pointed to each demigod in turn**(A/N: this is the next challenge! *see bottom AN!).**

The demigods' mouths dropped open as the God said their weapons of choice as if he were reading them from a book.

"I can do the Gods too! But anyone can!"

"What are they?"

"Lighning, water, darkness and fear, any weapon, battle startegy, bow and arrows, change enemies weapons to plants, don't fight, don't fight, forges own weapons, bad smelling perfume and other fashion stuff, and strangles enemies with vines. **(A/N: order for tha one was zeus, poseidon, hades, ares, athena, apollo/artemis, demeter, hestia, hera, hephaestus, aphrodite, and dionysus)**

Everyone was in awe, well except for Hera.

"You're still in trouble mister" Hera said and everyone laughed as the God shrunk down in his seat and mumbled "yes mother."

**"Anyway," Ares continued, "I tinkered with the magic a bit, so the bolt would only return to the sheath once you reached the Underworld. You get close to Hades…. Bingo, you got mail. If you died along the way-no loss. I still had the weapon."**

"Zeus glared at his son.

**"But why not just keep the master bolt for yourself?" I said. "Why send it to Hades?"**

**Ares got a twitch in his jaw. For a moment, it was almost as if he were listening to another voice, deep inside his head. "Why didn't I … yeah … with that kind of firepower …"**

More glaring.

**He held the trance for one second … two seconds….**

"It's almost as if your listening to someone else" Athena said.

"I don't listen to anybody!" Ares said.

"Except me!" Hera said.

"Yes mom" Ares said quickly.

**I exchanged nervous looks with Annabeth.**

**Ares's face cleared. "I didn't want the trouble. Better to have you caught redhanded, holding the thing."**

**"You're lying," I said. "Sending the bolt to the Underworld wasn't your idea, was it?"**

**"Of course it was!" Smoke drifted up from his sunglasses, as if they were about to catch fire.**

"Probably were" Clarisse said.

**"You didn't order the theft," I guessed. "Someone else sent a hero to steal the two items. Then, when Zeus sent you to hunt him down, you caught the thief. But you didn't turn him over to Zeus. Something convinced you to let him go. You kept the items until another hero could come along and complete the delivery. That thing in the pit is ordering you around."**

**"I am the god of war! I take orders from no one! I don't have dreams!"**

"Who said anything about dreams?" Silena asked.

**I hesitated. "Who said anything about dreams?"**

Everyone laughed as Silena blushed.

**Ares looked agitated, but he tried to cover it with a smirk.**

**"Let's get back to the problem at hand, kid. You're alive. I can't have you taking that bolt to Olympus. You just might get those hardheaded idiots to listen to you. So I've got to kill you. Nothing personal."**

"Touch him and I will send you to Tarturas!" Poseidon said.

**He snapped his fingers. The sand exploded at his feet and out charged a wild boar, even larger and uglier than the one whose head hung above the door of cabin seven at Camp Half-Blood.**

Clarisse glared at Percy.

**The beast pawed the sand, glaring at me with beady eyes as it lowered its razor-sharp tusks and waited for the command to kill.**

**I stepped into the surf. "Fight me yourself, Ares."**

"At least you're in the water" Poseidon nodded.

**He laughed, but I heard a little edge to his laughter … an uneasiness. **

"Right!" Ares scoffed.

**"You've only got one talent, kid, running away. You ran from the Chimera. You ran from the Underworld. You don't have what it takes."**

**"Scared?"**

"In your pathetic dreams." **(A/N: almost like gods high school is hard! when nico said "chicken" and ares replied "in your pathetic dreams! lol im babbling!)**

**"In your adolescent dreams." But his sunglasses were starting to melt from the heat of his eyes. "No direct involvement. Sorry, kid. You're not at my level."**

"Yeah! He's much better!" surprisingly it was Clarisse and Frank who said it.

"Isn't he your dad?" Connor asked Frank.

"Yeah but I've been on a quest with Percy before and I can't even explain how good he was!" Frank said.

"Quest?" Percy asked "what year are you from again?"

"2011" Frank answered.

"Why would I go on a quest with a Roman?" Percy asked.

Frank shrugged **(A/N: man i have a lot of these! damn! i just thought how funny it was that his name was frank! i mean Riordan gives the characters all these amazingly cool names like perseus and jason and silena then theres...frank! anyone else find it funny or am i just crazy! no i am crazy!lol)**

"Everyone was confused.

**Annabeth said, "Percy, run!"**

**The giant boar charged.**

**But I was done running from monsters. Or Hades, or Ares, or anybody.**

"Brave Percy Jackson" a Camp Half-Blood demigod said and the rest of them cheered.

**As the boar rushed me, I uncapped my pen and sidestepped. Riptide appeared in my hands. I slashed upward. The boar's severed right tusk fell at my feet, while the disoriented animal charged into the sea.**

**I shouted, "Wave!"**

"This kid is freaking amazing!" Leo said.

**Immediately, a wave surged up from nowhere and engulfed the boar, wrapping around it like a blanket. The beast squealed once in terror. Then it was gone, swallowed by the sea.**

"Why you gotta bring that filth into the sea?!" Poseidon joked.

**I turned back to Ares. "Are you going to fight me now?" I asked. "Or are you going to hide behind another pet?"**

"Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhh"Apollo and Hermes yelled.

"I love this kid!" Hermes yelled and hugged Percy.

**Ares's face was purple with rage. "Watch it, kid. I could turn you into-"**

**"A cockroach," I said. "Or a tapeworm. Yeah, I'm sure. That'd save you from getting your godly hide whipped, wouldn't it?"**

"BURN!" Apollo, Hermes, Connor, Travis, Leo, Thalia, Nico, and Chris all yelled.

"shut up before I turn you all into tapeworms!" Ares growled.

"Percy'll protect us!" Hermes said.

"Wha?!"Percy asked after taking a bite from a sugar cookie "When did I agree to that?!"

"Just now in my head!" Apollo said and everyone laughed.

**Flames danced along the top of his glasses. "Oh, man, you are really asking to be smashed into a grease spot."**

**"If I lose, turn me into anything you want. Take the bolt. If I win, the helm and the bolt are mine and you have to go away."**

"Please win!" Zeus, Poseidon and Hades said and looked at each other.

"Brotherly moment!" Connor yelled and hugged Travis.

**Ares sneered.**

**He swung the baseball bat off his shoulder. "How would you like to get smashed: classic or modern?"**

"Modern!" Connor, Travis and Leo said.

"Classic!" Apollo and Hermes said.

"Boys" Artemis mumbled.

"Tell me about it" Hestia said.

**I showed him my sword.**

**"That's cool, dead boy," he said. "Classic it is." The baseball bat changed into a huge, two-handed sword. The hilt was a large silver skull with a ruby in its mouth.**

"Cool!" Leo said even Ares was going to use the sword to attempt to kill Percy.

**"Percy," Annabeth said. "Don't do this. He's a god."**

"Listen to the Daughter of Athena! Just this once!" Poseidon said and everyone chuckled.

**"He's a coward," I told her.**

**She swallowed. "Wear this, at least. For luck."**

**She took off her necklace, with her five years' worth of camp beads and the ring from her father, and tied it around my neck.**

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" Aphrodite, Silena and piper said.

"How sweet!" Silena said.

Percy and Annabeth bluched while Leo looked at Piper like 'What the Hades was that?'

"Aphrodite genes" Piper explained.

Leo let out a silent "ah"

**"Reconciliation," she said. "Athena and Poseidon together."**

"Wisdom and Sea?" Hermes asked.

"Makes a good pair" Apollo said.

"That's why Poseidon is with Athena and Percy is with Annabeth! It was meant for Sea and Wisdom to combine.

**My face felt a little warm, but I managed a smile. "Thanks."**

"You were SO red!" Annabeth laughed.

Percy blushed.

**"And take this," Grover said. He handed me a flattened tin can that he'd probably been saving in his pocket for a thousand miles. "The satyrs stand behind you."**

"I know I was "Grover said "litterally and mentally."

"You are such a good friend!" Hestia cooed!

"The best!" Percy said.

Grover blushed.

**"Grover … I don't know what to say."**

**He patted me on the shoulder. I stuffed the tin can in my back pocket.**

**"You all done saying good-bye?" Ares came toward me, his black leather duster trailing behind him, his sword glinting like fire in the sunrise. "I've been fighting for eternity, kid. My strength is unlimited and I cannot die. What have you got?"**

"A smalle ego" Rachel said.

**A smaller ego, **

"Everyone laughed as Rachel blushed.

**I thought, but I said nothing. I kept my feet in the surf, backing into the water up to my ankles. I thought back to what Annabeth had said at the Denver diner, so long ago: Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes.**

"You do listen!" Annabeth joked.

"Yup!" Percy said.

"But you only listen to Annabeth" Thalia said.

"Yup!" Percy repeated "Thats the only person I have to listen to! She'd kick my butt otherwise."

Everyone laughed.

**He cleaved downward at my head, but I wasn't there.**

"Thank the Fates" Poseidon said.

**My body thought for me. The water seemed to push me into the air and I catapulted over him, slashing as I came down. But Ares was just as quick. He twisted, and the strike that should've caught him directly in the spine was deflected off the end of his sword hilt.**

**He grinned. "Not bad, not bad."**

**He slashed again and I was forced to jump onto dry land. **

Everypone's face fell.

"Poseidon didn't look good.

**I tried to sidestep, to get back to the water, but Ares seemed to know what I wanted. He outmaneuvered me, pressing so hard I had to put all my concentration on not getting sliced into pieces. I kept backing away from the surf. I couldn't find any openings to attack. His sword had a reach several feet longer than Anaklusmos.**

"Not good" Luke said.

**Get in close, Luke had told me once, back in our sword class. When you've got the shorter blade, get in close.**

"He listened to Luke once" Nico said.

"Once" Thalia joked back as Percy pouted.

Annabeth kissed her pouting boyfriend.

**I stepped inside with a thrust, but Ares was waiting for that. He knocked my blade out of my hands and kicked me in the chest. I went airborne-twenty, maybe thirty feet. I would've broken my back if I hadn't crashed into the soft sand of a dune.**

Poseidon gorwled and glared at Ares.

Sally was also galring at him.

**"Percy!" Annabeth yelled. "Cops!"**

"Oh come on!" a few people yelled.

**I was seeing double. My chest felt like it had just been hit with a battering ram, but I managed to get to my feet.**

"Please get in the water" Poseidon said and Athena took his ahnd for reassurance.

**I couldn't look away from Ares for fear he'd slice me in half, **

"He won't if he values his life "Poseidon growled and glared at his nephew.

**but out of the corner of my eye I saw red lights flashing on the shoreline boulevard. Car doors were slamming.**

"Really?!" Hermes whined.

**"There, officer!" somebody yelled. "See?"**

**A gruff cop voice: "Looks like that kid on TV … what the heck …"**

**"That guy's armed," another cop said. "Call for backup."**

**I rolled to one side as Ares's blade slashed the sand.**

**I ran for my sword, scooped it up, and launched a swipe at Ares's face, only to find my blade deflected again.**

**Ares seemed to know exactly what I was going to do the moment before I did it.**

"Go to the water Percy" Poseidon said.

**"Admit it, kid," Ares said. "You got no hope. I'm just toying with you."**

"At least he's honest about it" Hestia said.

**My senses were working overtime. I now understood what Annabeth had said about ADHD keeping you alive in battle. I was wide awake, noticing every little detail.**

"Thank you!" almost everyone screamed except for the pouting Percy.

**I could see where Ares was tensing. I could tell which way he would strike. At the same time, I was aware of Annabeth and Grover, thirty feet to my left. I saw a second cop car pulling up, siren wailing. Spectators, people who had been wandering the streets because of the earthquake, were starting to gather. Among the crowd, I thought I saw a few who were walking with the strange, trotting gait of disguised satyrs. There were shimmering forms of spirits, too, as if the dead had risen from Hades to watch the battle. I heard the flap of leathery wings circling somewhere above.**

"The Furies?" Hades asked.

Percy nodded.

**More sirens.**

**I stepped farther into the water, but Ares was fast. The tip of his blade ripped my sleeve and grazed my forearm.**

Poseidon growled.

**A police voice on a megaphone said, "Drop the guns.' Set them on the ground. Now!"**

"Guns?" Leo asked.

**Guns?**

Leo blushed.

**I looked at Ares's weapon, and it seemed to be flickering; sometimes it looked like a shotgun, sometimes a two-handed sword. I didn't know what the humans were seeing in my hands, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't make them like me.**

A few weak chuckles could be heard.

**Ares turned to glare at our spectators, which gave me a moment to breathe. There were five police cars now, and a line of officers crouching behind them, pistols trained on us.**

**"This is a private matter!" Ares bellowed. "Be gone.'"**

**He swept his hand, and a wall of red flame rolled across the patrol cars. The police barely had time to dive for cover before their vehicles exploded. The crowd behind them scattered, screaming.**

**Ares roared with laughter. "Now, little hero. Let's add you to the barbecue."**

Poseidon looked ready to kill Ares.

**He slashed. I deflected his blade. I got close enough to strike, tried to fake him out with a feint, but my blow was knocked aside. The waves were hitting me in the back now. Ares was up to his thighs, wading in after me.**

**I felt the rhythm of the sea, the waves growing larger as the tide rolled in, and suddenly I had an idea. Little waves, I thought. And the water behind me seemed to recede. I was holding back the tide by force of will, but tension was building, like carbonation behind a cork.**

Poseidon's eyes widened before his mouth did to into a huge smile.

"I get it!" Poseidon said.

"I don't!" everyone else yelled!

"Too bad!" Percy said.

**Ares came toward, grinning confidently. I lowered my blade, as if I were too exhausted to go on. Wait for it, I told the sea. The pressure now was almost lifting me off my feet. Ares raised his sword. I released the tide and jumped, rocketing straight over Ares on a wave.**

**A six-foot wall of water smashed him full in the face, leaving him cursing and sputtering with a mouth full of seaweed. I landed behind him with a splash and feinted toward his head, as I'd done before. He turned in time to raise his sword, but this time he was disoriented, he didn't anticipate the trick. I changed direction, lunged to the side, and stabbed Riptide straight down into the water, sending the point through the god's heel.**

Stunned silence after Travis finsihed reading that.

Then the room burst into cheers!

"Amazing!" Athena said

"Oustanding!" Apollo cheered.

"Fantastic!" Hermes screamed.

"Wonderful" Demeter said.

"Fabulous!" Aphrodite squeled.

"How did you do that?" Jason asked Percy.

"The longer you're here the more you'll see how freking amazing I am" Percy said and Jason laughed.

"THAT'S MY BOY! "Poseidon yelled and everyone cheered again.

**The roar that followed made Hades's earthquake look like a minor event. The very sea was blasted back from Ares, leaving a wet circle of sand fifty feet wide.**

"Getting so worked up over a small cut" Aphrodite noted.

**Ichor, the golden blood of the gods, flowed from a gash in the war god's boot. The expression on his face was beyond hatred. It was pain, shock, complete disbelief that he'd been wounded.**

Ares's mouth was gaping open.

"A godling beat me?!" he asked and everyone laughed.

"Yup!" everyone then yelled and Ares fainted.

**He limped toward me, muttering ancient Greek curses.**

**Something stopped him.**

**It was as if a cloud covered the sun, but worse. Light faded. Sound and color drained away. A cold, heavy presence passed over the beach, slowing time, dropping the temperature to freezing, and making me feel like life was hopeless, fighting was useless.**

The gods all got worried looks on their faces.

"Kronos?" one asked.

"I'm afraid so" Zeus sid "it would seem as if Father is rising!"

"Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia and Demeter all shuddered.

"Which is why it's a good thing we have such a brave group of demigods here to help us" Zeus said and smiled down at a few of the many demigods that will help.

Everyone cheered.

**The darkness lifted.**

**Ares looked stunned.**

**Police cars were burning behind us. The crowd of spectators had fled. Annabeth and Grover stood on the beach, in shock, watching the water flood back around Ares's feet, his glowing golden ichor dissipating in the tide.**

**Ares lowered his sword.**

**"You have made an enemy, godling," he told me. "You have sealed your fate. Every time you raise your blade in battle, every time you hope for success, you will feel my curse. Beware, Perseus Jackson. Beware."**

"It doesn't creep me out unless they use my full name" Percy said.

"I hope you won't need the victory to bad" Poseidon said.

"I found a way around it" Percy said and Poseidon smiled in relief.

**His body began to glow.**

**"'Percy!" Annabeth shouted. "Don't watch!"**

**I turned away as the god Ares revealed his true irnmortal form. I somehow knew that if I looked, I would disintegrate into ashes.**

**The light died.**

**I looked back. Ares was gone. The tide rolled out to reveal Hades's bronze helm of darkness. I picked it up and walked toward my friends.**

**But before I got there, I heard the flapping of leathery wings. Three evil-looking grandmothers with lace hats and fiery whips drifted down from the sky and landed in front of me.**

**The middle Fury, the one who had been Mrs. Dodds, stepped forward. Her fangs were bared, but for once she didn't look threatening. She looked more disappointed, as if she'd been planning to have me for supper, but had decided I might give her indigestion.**

Everyone laughed.

**"We saw the whole thing," she hissed. "So … it truly was not you?"**

"Not me" Percy said.

**I tossed her the helmet, which she caught in surprise.**

**"Return that to Lord Hades," I said. "Tell him the truth. Tell him to call off the war."**

**She hesitated, then ran a forked tongue over her green, leathery lips. "Live well, Percy Jackson. Become a true hero. Because if you do not, if you ever come into my clutches again …"**

"This is why she hates you?" Nico asked.

"She still hates me?" Percy laughed.

"Oh yeah!" Nico said and they laughed.

**She cackled, savoring the idea. Then she and her sisters rose on their bats' wings, fluttered into the smoke-filled sky, and disappeared.**

**I joined Grover and Annabeth, who were staring at me in amazement.**

**"Percy …" Grover said. "That was so incredibly …"**

**"Terrifying," said Annabeth.**

**"Cool!" Grover corrected.**

"I agree with Grover" Apollo, Hermes, Leo, Connor and Travis said.

"I agree with Ms. Chase here" Poseidon said.

"This happened so close to Camp Jupiter!" Jason said.

"Yup! I've been so close to your camp many times and I somehow never notice it" Percy said.

"Funny" Jason smiled at Percy and Percy returned the smile, the beginning of a good friendship.

**I didn't feel terrified. I certainly didn't feel cool. I was tired and sore and completely drained of energy.**

**"Did you guys feel that… whatever it was?" I asked.**

**They both nodded uneasily.**

**"Must've been the Furies overhead," Grover said.**

**But I wasn't so sure. Something had stopped Ares from killing me, and whatever could do that was a lot stronger than the Furies.**

**I looked at Annabeth, and an understanding passed between us. I knew now what was in that pit, what had spoken from the entrance of Tartarus.**

"He's still not getting that it's Kronos" Luke said and people from futuere CHB looked at him.

If only he knew.

**I reclaimed my backpack from Grover and looked inside. The master bolt was still there. Such a small thing to almost cause World War III.**

"PfT! Not small! That is my Master Bolt!" Zeus said.

A few rolled their eyes.

**"We have to get back to New York," I said. "By tonight."**

**"That's impossible," Annabeth said, "unless we-"**

**"Fly," I agreed.**

"You're crazy!" Thalia said.

"Zeus won't shoot him down cause he's carrying his bolt" Poseidon said looking at his brother.

"Of course not" Zeus said.

**She stared at me. "Fly, like, in an airplane, which you were warned never to do lest Zeus strike you out of the sky, and carrying a weapon that has more destructive power than a nuclear bomb?"**

**"Yeah," I said. "Pretty much exactly like that. Come on."**

"Done" Travis said "who's next?"

Katie raised her hand and her boyfriend passed the book to her so she could read the second to last chapter.

* * *

**i am almost done!:) oh my gods! okay so the next challenge!**

**remember the part where Ares tells the demigods what they fight with? course ya do! now! i know it's confusing and i was gonna put the order of demigods that Ares named weapons for but i figure! hey! what a good challenge! ill give you the fist 3 people...**

**percy, annabeth, luke! happy guessing!:)**

**thx for all the 300 reviews and check out my poll!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	27. I Settle My Tab

**second to last chapter guys! sorry about the minimal fluff:( only one person got the order right so this chapter is dedicated to!**

**The Favorite of the Gods! they are the only one that got the order exactly right!**

**it was percy, annabeth, luke, thalia, nico, clarisse, piper, jason, leo, frank, hazel, bianca, katie, Stolls, chris, bekendorf, silena!**

**the ones who answered, there was only a few, you forgot Chris:( or someone else like bianca or frank.**

**congrats!:) now for reviewer answers!**

**YJV:** Once you have outdone yourself! can't wait to read the next chapter! Thanks for updating!: )  
** ~Why thank you *bows gracefully* im glad you liked it**

**allen r:** awesome story hope you will do all the books. hopeyou add tons of fluff in last two chapters. athn should be very greatful to perc for making sure annbeth would not die if us killed hi in next hapter. also annabeth and athena should be impressed that percy tried to give her and grover equal credits with himself.

** ~i am doing all the books even the HoO. i am always grateful for your suggestions:) sorry about the minimal fluff:(**

...

**disclaimer:**

**Me: I made a promis tot he big three kids so...I do not, sadly, own PJO! Rick Riordan does!**

* * *

**"I settle my tab." **Katie read.

"You're to young to drink!" Connor said.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

**It's funny how humans can wrap their mind around things and fit them into their version of reality. Chiron had told me that long ago. As usual, I didn't appreciate his wisdom until much later.**

"As usual" Annabeth said.

**According to the L.A. news, the explosion at the Santa Monica beach had been caused when a crazy kidnapper fired a shotgun at a police car. He accidentally hit a gas main that had ruptured during the earthquake.**

"Good alabi" Hazel said.

**This crazy kidnapper (a.k.a. Ares) was the same man who had abducted me and two other adolescents in New York and brought us across country on a ten-day odyssey of terror.**

"Not sure about the kidnapper part but Ares is crazy" Apollo said.

Ares glared at him as everyone laughed.

**Poor little Percy Jackson wasn't an international criminal after all. He'd caused a commotion on that Greyhound bus in New Jersey trying to get away from his captor (and afterward, witnesses would even swear they had seen the leather-clad man on the bus-"Why didn't I remember him before?").**

"I didin't see him" Annabeth said and Grover nodded.

**The crazy man had caused the explosion in the St. Louis Arch. After all, no kid could've done that. **

"A monster can though "Poseidon said.

**A concerned waitress in Denver had seen the man threatening his abductees outside her diner, gotten a friend to take a photo, and notified the police. Finally, brave Percy Jackson (I was beginning to like this kid) **

"Seaweed brain" Annabeth laughed.

**had stolen a gun from his captor in Los Angeles and battled him shotgun-to-rifle on the beach. Police had arrived just in time. But in the spectacular explosion, five police cars had been destroyed and the captor had fled. No fatalities had occurred. Percy Jackson and his two friends were safely in police custody.**

"Good" Sally said and let out a sigh of relief it sounded like she'd beeen holding for half the book.

**The reporters fed us this whole story. We just nodded and acted tearful and exhausted (which wasn't hard), and played victimized kids for the cameras.**

"It's never hard" Luke said.

**"All I want," I said, choking back my tears, "is to see my loving stepfather again. Every time I saw him on TV, calling me a delinquent punk, I knew … somehow … we would be okay. And I know he'll want to reward each and every person in this beautiful city of Los Angeles with a free major appliance from his store. Here's the phone number." **

Everyone cracked up.

"Nice!" Connor yelled.

"I love this kid!" Hermes yelled.

**The police and reporters were so moved that they passed around the hat and raised money for three tickets on the next plane to New York.**

"Smart" Athena said "even though you had to lie."

**I knew there was no choice but to fly. I hoped Zeus would cut me some slack, considering the circumstances. But it was still hard to force myself on board the flight.**

"Your dad's the same way" Apollo laughed.

"He will NOT fly" Hermes said.

"We drag him on plane if we're taking a 'family trip' somewhere" Dionysus said.

"Then your Uncle causes turbulence every 20 seconds" Poseidon glared at Zeus.

"Because I like watching your face" Zeus said.

"If you don't mind me asking" Silena said "Why don't you just transport there?"

"Because Hera insists that we act like mortals and fly in an airplane" Demeter said.

Hera smiled.

"Trust us! Poseidon and Hades both try every time we go on a plane" Apollo said.

"Zeus loves tormenting his brothers" Hera said.

"It's funny" Zeus argued.

Hades and Poseidon glared.

"By the way...the next trip if to Austraila! 17 hour flight!" Hera beamed.

Poseidon and Hades paled.

"Maybe the demigods would like to come!" Hera continued and Nico, Percy, Thalia, Bianca, and Sally paled.

"We're good" Percy said and Nico and Thalia nodded.

**Takeoff was a nightmare. Every spot of turbulence was scarier than a Greek monster. I didn't unclench my hands from the armrests until we touched down safely at La Guardia. The local press was waiting for us outside security, but we managed to evade them thanks to Annabeth, who lured them away in her invisible Yankees cap, shouting, "They're over by the frozen yogurt! Come on!" then rejoined us at baggage claim.**

"Good plan" Athena said.

"I came up with it" Annabeth said.

"Of course you did" Athena smiled.

**We split up at the taxi stand. I told Annabeth and Grover to get back to Half-Blood Hill and let Chiron know what had happened. They protested, and it was hard to let them go after all we'd been through, but I knew I had to do this last part of the quest by myself. If things went wrong, if the gods didn't believe me … I wanted Annabeth and Grover to survive to tell Chiron the truth.**

"Very optimistic!" Jason joked.

"He never is!" Annabeth said.

"I'm realistic not pessimistic!" Percy yelled and everyone laughed.

Annabeth kissed him.

"Right" she said.

**I hopped in a taxi and headed into Manhattan.**

**Thirty minutes later, I walked into the lobby of the Empire State Building.**

**I must have looked like a homeless kid, with my tattered clothes and my scraped-up face. I hadn't slept in at least twenty-four hours.**

"Worst part about quests" Nico said.

The demigods nodded.

**I went up to the guard at the front desk and said, "Six hundredth floor."**

**He was reading a huge book with a picture of a wizard on the front. I wasn't much into fantasy, but the book must've been good, because the guard took a while to look up. "No such floor, kiddo."**

"Mark is a huge Harry Potter fan...he was probably reading it" Apollo said.

**"I need an audience with Zeus."**

**He gave me a vacant smile. "Sorry?"**

**"You heard me."**

**I was about to decide this guy was just a regular mortal, and I'd better run for it before he called the straitjacket patrol, when he said, "No appointment, no audience, kiddo. Lord Zeus doesn't see anyone unannounced."**

"I would've laughed if it was a mortal!" Leo joked.

Everyone laughed.

**"Oh, I think he'll make an exception." I slipped off my backpack and unzipped the top.**

"That'll get his attention" Apollo smiled.

**The guard looked inside at the metal cylinder, not getting what it was for a few seconds. Then his face went pale. "That isn't…"**

**"Yes, it is," I promised. "You want me take it out and-"**

"Nice" Hermes joked.

**"No! No!" He scrambled out of his seat, fumbled around his desk for a key card, then handed it to me. "Insert this in the security slot. Make sure nobody else is in the elevator with you."**

**I did as he told me. As soon as the elevator doors closed, I slipped the key into the slot. The card disappeared and a new button appeared on the console, a red one that said 600.**

**I pressed it and waited, and waited.**

**Muzak played. "Raindrops keep falling on my head…."**

"We need better elevator music" Aphrodite said.

"The music is fine!" Apollo argued.

Aphrodite and Apollo started arguing about the music.

"They always argue about that...it's pretty stupid" Athena said.

"You and Poseidon used to argue about who would win the argument one of these days" Demeter said and the new couple blushed.

**Finally, ding. The doors slid open. I stepped out and almost had a heart attack.**

"The kids goes on a quest and saves the world only to have a heart attack returning bolt" Apollo said shaking his head.

**I was standing on a narrow stone walkway in the middle of the air. Below me was Manhattan, from the height of an airplane. In front of me, white marble steps wound up the spine of a cloud, into the sky. My eyes followed the stairway to its end, where my brain just could not accept what I saw.**

"It is hard to take in" Chris said.

**Look again, my brain said.**

**We're looking, my eyes insisted. It's really there.**

"You're eyes talk and you understand them?" Leo asked "Lucky!"

Everyone laughed.

**From the top of the clouds rose the decapitated peak of a mountain, its summit covered with snow. Clinging to the mountainside were dozens of multileveled palaces-a city of mansions-all with white-columned porticos, gilded terraces, and bronze braziers glowing with a thousand fires. Roads wound crazily up to the peak, where the largest palace gleamed against the snow. Precariously perched gardens bloomed with olive trees and rosebushes. I could make out an open-air market filled with colorful tents, a stone amphitheater built on one side of the mountain, a hippodrome and a coliseum on the other. It was an Ancient Greek city, except it wasn't in ruins. It was new, and clean, and colorful, the way Athens must've looked twenty-five hundred years ago.**

"It is more glorious than Athens" Athena said.

"Annabeth's Olympus is better!" Percy said and Annabeth blushed as the Camp Half Blood demigods, who fought in the Titan War, nodded.

"Thanks" she mumbled and Percy chuckled as he kissed her head.

"I'm sure it is better" Athena smiled at her daughter.

**This place can't be here, I told myself. The tip of a mountain hanging over New York City like a billion-ton asteroid? How could something like that be anchored above the Empire State Building, in plain sight of millions of people, and not get noticed?**

"Godda love the Mist" Hermes said.

**But here it was. And here I was.**

**My trip through Olympus was a daze. I passed some giggling wood nymphs**

Annabeth narrowed her eyes.

**who threw olives at me from their garden.**

Athena humphed and Poseidon chuckled and kissed her.

**Hawkers in the market offered to sell me ambrosia-on-a-stick, and a new shield, and a genuine glitter-weave replica of the Golden Fleece, **

"I've seen the real one" Percy said and the Romans, past demigods and Gods looked at hime.

"It'll explain in a book" Percy said.

**as seen on Hephaestus-TV The nine muses were tuning their instruments for a concert in the park**

"Wooooooo" Apollo cheered.

"Isn't there a Muse name Thalia?" Rachel asked and everyone looked at Thalia.

"I don't know! Ask one of them!" she pointed to Athena and Annabeth.

"Yes" it was Apollo who answered "there is. She is the embodiment of Comedy."

Everyone laughed.

"Thalia is very funny" Nico said but didn't realize he said it out loud till everyone looked at him.

"What?!" Nico said "she is! Around me anyway!"

Thalia might've blushed a little.

Annabeth saw.

"Thalia is that blush?" Annabeth asked.

The blush disappeared from Thalia's cheeks.

"No" she said and stared straight ahead.

Annabeth dropped it.

**while a small crowd gathered-satyrs and naiads and a bunch of good-looking teenagers who might've been minor gods and goddesses. **

"Nice!" Apollo said.

**Nobody seemed worried about an impending civil war. In fact, everybody seemed in a festive mood. Several of them turned to watch me pass, and whispered to themselves.**

"I love gossip" Aphrodite Mused **;).**

"You're usually the one who starts it!" Demeter said.

"Nuh uh!" Aphrodite said.

"Who started the rumor about Artemis and Hermes a year ago?" Apollo asked.

Artemis and Hermes blushed as Aphrodite mumbled "me."

"That was you?!" Hermes asked, before Apollo could ask another question, and Aphrodte nodded.

Artemis glared at Aphrodite.

"Don't give me that look. You know you don't want it to be a rumor" Aphrodite said.

Artems god up **;) **and notched and arrow and aimed.

"Wanna say something else Aphrodite?" Artemis said but there was a hint of blush in her cheeks.

"Just say it's true and be done with it" Aphrodite said calmly and Artemis let the arrow fly.

It wizzed right past Aphrodite's head, causing her to jump and scream, and impaled itself into the wall behind her.

Artemis stalked out of the room saying "Finish the book without me...I'm going to go see my Huntresses."

Everyone was quiet for a minute before Katie began to read again.

**I climbed the main road, toward the big palace at the peak. It was a reverse copy of the palace in the Underworld.**

**There, everything had been black and bronze. Here, everything glittered white and silver.**

"Cause it prettier" Hera said.

**I realized Hades must've built his palace to resemble this one. He wasn't welcomed in Olympus except on the winter solstice, so he'd built his own Olympus underground. Despite my bad experience with him, I felt a little sorry for the guy. To be banished from this place seemed really unfair. It would make anybody bitter.**

The Olympians looked down in guilt.

Some apologized to Hades.

**Steps led up to a central courtyard. Past that, the throne room.**

**Room really isn't the right word. The place made Grand Central Station look like a broom closet. Massive columns rose to a domed ceiling, which was gilded with moving constellations.**

"There is?" Connor asked and him and Travis got up and ran to the Throne Hall where they looked past the snow and saw the constellations.

They came back in the room and sat back down in their seats.

"There is" they confirmed and everyone laughed.

**Twelve thrones, built for beings the size of Hades, were arranged in an inverted U, just like the cabins at Camp Half-Blood. An enormous fire crackled in the central hearth pit. The thrones were empty except for two at the end: the head throne on the right, and the one to its immediate left. I didn't have to be told who the two gods were that were sitting there, waiting for me to approach. I came toward them, my legs trembling.**

"Zeus and Poseidon" Athena said.

**The gods were in giant human form, as Hades had been, but I could barely look at them without feeling a tingle, as if my body were starting to burn. Zeus, the Lord of the Gods, wore a dark blue pinstriped suit. He sat on a simple throne of solid platinum. He had a well-trimmed beard, marbled gray and black like a storm cloud. His face was proud and handsome and grim, his eyes rainy gray.**

Someone coughed a cough that sounded suspiciously like boring.

Zeus glared at where the sound came from, which just so happened to be the loveseat poseidon and Athena were sitting in.

"Annabeth's eyes are a prettier gray" Percy said looking into said girl's eyes.

Annabeth smiled and kissed him on the lips.

"I like Athena's grey eyes" Poseidon said and Athena blushed.

Poseidon kissed his new girlfriend's lips before turning back to the book.

**As I got nearer to him, the air crackled and smelled of ozone.**

"You do smell like ozone dad" Apollo said.

**The god sitting next to him was his brother, without a doubt, but he was dressed very differently. He reminded me of a beachcomer from Key West. He wore leather sandals, khaki Bermuda shorts, and a Tommy Bahama shirt with coconuts and parrots all over it. His skin was deeply tanned, his hands scarred like an old-time fisherman's. His hair was black, like mine. His face had that same brooding look that had always gotten me branded a rebel. But his eyes, seagreen like mine, were surrounded by sun-crinkles that told me he smiled a lot, too.**

"I just noticed! You're wearing the same outfits!" Aphrodite said and Poseidon and Zeus looked down and laughed.

"We are" they said.

**His throne was a deep-sea fisherman's chair. It was the simple swiveling kind, with a black leather seat and a built-in holster for a fishing pole. Instead of a pole, the holster held a bronze trident, flickering with green light around the tips.**

Poseidon smiled, his trident was in Atlantis right now.

**The gods weren't moving or speaking, but there was tension in the air, as if they'd just finished an argument.**

"Probably" Athena said.

**I approached the fisherman's throne and knelt at his feet. "Father." I dared not look up. My heart was racing. I could feel the energy emanating from the two gods. If I said the wrong thing, I had no doubt they could blast me into dust.**

"I wouldn't allow it" Poseidon said.

**To my left, Zeus spoke. "Should you not address the master of this house first, boy?"**

"Be nice! He has your bolt! It is only right he should address his father first!" Hera said.

**I kept my head down, and waited.**

"Good move Seaweed Brain" Annaeth said.

**"Peace, brother," Poseidon finally said. His voice stirred my oldest memories: that warm glow I remembered as a baby, the sensation of this god's hand on my forehead, "The boy defers to his father. This is only right."**

"Poseidon agrees with me!" Hera said.

"He always agrees with you" Zeus said.

"Because I'm right!" Hera said and Zeus was about to say something when Piper spoke.

"The girl is always right Lord Zeus" she said and all the males nodded.

**"You still claim him then?" Zeus asked, menacingly. "You claim this child whom you sired against our sacred oath?"**

"It's not sacred first of all, and second of all you broke it too!" Hera said.

**"I have admitted my wrongdoing," Poseidon said. "Now I would hear him speak."**

"That's not what I meant son" Poseidon said.

"I know dad" Percy said.

Luke was so confused.

**Wrongdoing.**

**A lump welled up in my throat. Was that all I was? A wrongdoing? The result of a god's mistake?**

"No" Poseidon said "you are my son. My son that will make me very proud and I love."

Hera nodded at Poseidon.

A lump welled up in not only Percy's throat but in Sally's as well.

"Love you too dad" Percy said.

All the other demigods were jealous!

They wanted their immortal parent to tell them that!

**"I have spared him once already," Zeus grumbled. "Daring to fly through my domain … pah! I should have blasted him out of the sky for his impudence."**

"And destroy your bolt?" Jason asked his father.

**"And risk destroying your own master bolt?" Poseidon asked calmly. "Let us hear him out, brother."**

**Zeus grumbled some more. "I shall listen," he decided. "Then I shall make up my mind whether or not to cast this boy down from Olympus."**

"Please don't" Sally and Annabeth said.

**"Perseus," Poseidon said. "Look at me."**

Percy looked at Katie.

"It's in the reading!" Katie said.

"I know" Percy said.

Katie rolled her yes and read as a few people chuckled.

**I did, and I wasn't sure what I saw in his face. There was no clear sign of love or approval. Nothing to encourage me. It was like looking at the ocean: some days, you could tell what mood it was in. Most days, though, it was unreadable, mysterious.**

"Never thought about it that way" Athena said looking into Poseidon's face and only seeing happiness.

**I got the feeling Poseidon really didn't know what to think of me. He didn't know whether he was happy to have me as a son or not. In a strange way, I was glad that Poseidon was so distant. If he'd tried to apologize, or told me he loved me, or even smiled, it would've felt fake. Like a human dad, making some lame excuse for not being around. I could live with that. After all, I wasn't sure about him yet, either.**

**"Address Lord Zeus, boy," Poseidon told me. "Tell him your story."**

**So I told Zeus everything, just as it had happened. I took out the metal cylinder, which began sparking in the Sky God's presence, and laid it at his feet.**

**There was a long silence, broken only by the crackle of the hearth fire.**

"Awkward silence" Leo said and evertone laughed.

**Zeus opened his palm. The lightning bolt flew into it. As he closed his fist, the metallic points flared with electricity, until he was holding what looked more like the classic thunderbolt, a twenty-foot javelin of arcing, hissing energy that made the hairs on my scalp rise.**

"You sure do go into detail" Hazel said.

**"I sense the boy tells the truth," Zeus muttered. "But that Ares would do such a thing … it is most unlike him."**

**"He is proud and impulsive," Poseidon said. "It runs in the family."**

The few people who got it laughed.

"What?" Zeus asked.

"Poseidon just called you proud and impulsive" Athena explained.

Zeus humphed as everyone laughed harder.

**"Lord?" I asked.**

**They both said, "Yes?"**

"Awkward!" Chris said.

"It wouldn't have been if he said LordS" Annabeth said.

**"Ares didn't act alone. Someone else-something else- came up with the idea."**

**I described my dreams, and the feeling I'd had on the beach, that momentary breath of evil that had seemed to stop the world, and made Ares back off from killing me.**

**"In the dreams," I said, "the voice told me to bring the bolt to the Underworld. Ares hinted that he'd been having dreams, too. I think he was being used, just as I was, to start a war."**

**"You are accusing Hades, after all?" Zeus asked.**

"Better not be" Hades said and glared at his nephew.

**"No," I said. "I mean, Lord Zeus, I've been in the presence of Hades. This feeling on the beach was different. It was the same thing I felt when I got close to that pit. That was the entrance to Tartarus, wasn't it? Something powerful and evil is stirring down there … something even older than the gods."**

**Poseidon and Zeus looked at each other. They had a quick, intense discussion in Ancient Greek. I only caught one word. Father.**

Everyone now knew the threat of Kronos because most had figured it out.

"He's rising" Athena said.

**Poseidon made some kind of suggestion, but Zeus cut him off. Poseidon tried to argue. Zeus held up his hand angrily. "We will speak of this no more," Zeus said. "I must go personally to purify this thunderbolt in the waters of Lemnos, to remove the human taint from its metal."**

Hera rolled her eyes.

"He cares more about that bolt than me" she said.

Zeus looked at her.

"Do not!" he said.

"Yes you do" Hera said and Zeus dropped it.

**He rose and looked at me. His expression softened just a fraction of a degree. "You have done me a service, boy. Few heroes could have accomplished as much."**

**"I had help, sir," I said. "Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase-"**

"Thank you for mentioning my daughter Percy" Athena said.

"Your welcome Lady Athena" Percy said.

"Yeah thanks" Annabeth said and snuggled closer into Percy.

**"To show you my thanks, I shall spare your life. I do not trust you, Perseus Jackson. I do not like what your arrival means for the future of Olympus. But for the sake of peace in the family, I shall let you live."**

**"Um … thank you, sir."**

"Always add sir to the end" Frank said.

**"Do not presume to fly again. Do not let me find you here when I return. Otherwise you shall taste this bolt. And it shall be your last sensation."**

"Nice" Clarisse said.

**Thunder shook the palace. With a blinding flash of lightning, Zeus was gone.**

"Dramatic!" Hades and Poseidon said in a sing-song voice.

Zeus glared at his brothers.

**I was alone in the throne room with my father. "Your uncle," Poseidon sighed, "has always had a flair for dramatic exits. I think he would've done well as the god of theater."**

Zeus glared at Poseidon.

"So would Thalia!" Percy and Nico said and earned a smack on the head from said Daughter of Zeus.

**An uncomfortable silence.**

**"Sir," I said, "what was in that pit?"**

**Poseidon regarded me. "Have you not guessed?"**

**"Kronos," I said. "The king of the Titans."**

The fire in the fireplace dimmed dramatically and the room got very cold at the mention of Kronos.

**Even in the throne room of Olympus, far away from Tartarus, the name Kronos darkened the room, made the hearth fire seem not quite so warm on my back.**

**Poseidon gripped his trident. "In the First War, Percy, Zeus cut our father Kronos into a thousand pieces, just as Kronos had done to his own father, Ouranos. Zeus cast Kronos's remains into the darkest pit of Tartarus. The Titan army was scattered, their mountain fortress on Etna destroyed, their monstrous allies driven to the farthest corners of the earth. And yet Titans cannot die, any more than we gods can. Whatever is left of Kronos is still alive in some hideous way, still conscious in his eternal pain, still hungering for power."**

**"He's healing," I said. "He's coming back."**

"I wish he hadn't" Percy said and glanced at Luke then Hermes.

Hermes had been VERY quiet since Artemis left.

**Poseidon shook his head. "From time to time, over the eons, Kronos has stirred. He enters men's nightmares and breathes evil thoughts. He wakens restless monsters from the depths. But to suggest he could rise from the pit is another thing."**

"Sadly it's true" someone said.

**"That's what he intends, Father. That's what he said."**

**Poseidon was silent for a long time.**

**"Lord Zeus has closed discussion on this matter. He will not allow talk of Kronos. You have completed your quest, child. That is all you need to do."**

"And in a few years defeat Kronos!" Percy said.

**"But-" I stopped myself. Arguing would do no good. It would very possibly anger the only god who I had on my side. "As … as you wish, Father."**

**A faint smile played on his lips. "Obedience does not come naturally to you, does it?"**

"No" PErcy and Annabeth said at the same time, remembering a couple of times they, or just Percy, snuck off.

**"No … sir."**

**"I must take some blame for that, I suppose. The sea does not like to be restrained." He rose to his full height and took up his trident. Then he shimmered and became the size of a regular man, standing directly in front of me. "You must go, child. But first, know that your mother has returned."**

Poseidon smiled.

**I stared at him, completely stunned. "My mother?"**

**"You will find her at home. Hades sent her when you recovered his helm. Even the Lord of Death pays his debts."**

"I'm not heartless!" Hades said.

**My heart was pounding. I couldn't believe it. "Do you … would you …"**

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" Aphrodite cooed "he wants you to go!"

"Sadly I couldn't" Poseidon said.

**I wanted to ask if Poseidon would come with me to see her, but then I realized that was ridiculous. I imagined loading the God of the Sea into a taxi and taking him to the Upper East Side. If he'd wanted to see my mom all these years, he would have. And there was Smelly Gabe to think about.**

Annabeth clentched her fists and closed her eyes at the mention of Gabe.

**Poseidon's eyes took on a little sadness. "When you return home, Percy, you must make an important choice. You will find a package waiting in your room."**

"A package?" Jason asked.

"Just wait" Percy said.

**"A package?"**

**"You will understand when you see it. No one can choose your path, Percy. You must decide."**

**I nodded, though I didn't know what he meant.**

**"Your mother is a queen among women," Poseidon said wistfully.**

"AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW WWWWWWWWWWWWWWW" Aphrodite cooed.

"MY EARS ARE BLEEDING" Percy yelled.

Apollo waved his hand and everyone got off the floor seeing as though their ears were fixed, except for Hermes who still sat there not effected at all by Aphrodite's squel.

"How cute!" Aphrodite squeled, a little softer.

Sally blushed and Poseidon smiled.

**"I had not met such a mortal woman in a thousand years. Still … I am sorry you were born, child. I have brought you a hero's fate, and a hero's fate is never happy. It is never anything but tragic."**

**I tried not to feel hurt. Here was my own dad, telling me he was sorry I'd been born.**

"Not like that!" Poseidon said.

"I know" Percy reassured.

**"I don't mind, Father."**

**"Not yet, perhaps," he said. "Not yet. But it was an unforgivable mistake on my part."**

**"I'll leave you then." I bowed awkwardly. "I-I won't bother you again."**

**I was five steps away when he called, "Perseus."**

**I turned.**

**There was a different light in his eyes, a fiery kind of pride. "You did well, Perseus. Do not misunderstand me. Whatever else you do, know that you are mine. You are a true son of the Sea God."**

Percy sat up a little straighter and Poseidon smiled at him.

"He's still a Seaweed Brain" Annabeth said.

**As I walked back through the city of the gods, conversations stopped. The muses paused their concert. People and satyrs and naiads all turned toward me, their faces filled with respect and gratitude, and as I passed, they knelt, as if I were some kind of hero.**

"You are" Annabeth said, her yes were shining with pride and she smiled.

"But I'm your hero" Percy smiled at her.

Annabeth blushed before kissing him.

**Fifteen minutes later, still in a trance, I was back on the streets of Manhattan.**

**I caught a taxi to my mom's apartment, rang the doorbell, and there she was-my beautiful mother, smelling of peppermint and licorice, the weariness and worry evaporating from her face as soon as she saw me.**

**"Percy! Oh, thank goodness. Oh, my baby."**

Everyone smiled.

Sally was home!

**She crushed the air right out of me. We stood in the hallway as she cried and ran her hands through my hair.**

**I'll admit it-my eyes were a little misty, too. I was shaking, I was so relieved to see her.**

Ares did not say anything seeing as though he was till in the doghouse with Hera.

**She told me she'd just appeared at the apartment that morning, scaring Gabe half out of his wits. She didn't remember anything since the Minotaur, and** couldn't** believe it when Gabe told her I was a wanted criminal, traveling across the country, blowing up national monuments. She'd been going out of her mind with worry all day because she hadn't heard the news. Gabe had forced her to go into work, saying she had a month's salary to make up and she'd better get started.**

"Jerk!" Everyone said.

**I swallowed back my anger and told her my own story. I tried to make it sound less scary than it had been, but that wasn't easy. I was just getting to the fight with Ares when Gabe's voice interrupted from the living room. "Hey, Sally! That meat loaf done yet or what?"**

Percy and Poseidon looked murderous.

**She closed her eyes. "He isn't going to be happy to see you, Percy. The store got half a million phone calls today from Los Angeles … something about free appliances."**

**"Oh, yeah. About that…"**

Everyone laughed.

**She managed a weak smile. "Just don't make him angrier, all right? Come on."**

**In the month I'd been gone, the apartment had turned into Gabeland. Garbage was ankle deep on the carpet. The sofa had been reupholstered in beer cans. Dirty socks and underwear hung off the lampshades.**

"Like Ares's room?" Hera asked.

"Probably" Aphrodite admitted.

Hera shook her head.

**Gabe and three of his big goony friends were playing poker at the table.**

**When Gabe saw me, his cigar dropped out of his mouth. His face got redder than lava. "You got nerve coming here, you little punk. I thought the police-"**

**"He's not a fugitive after all," my mom interjected. "Isn't that wonderful, Gabe?"**

**Gabe looked back and forth between us. He didn't seem to think my homecoming was so wonderful.**

Poseidon was glaring.

**"Bad enough I had to give back your life insurance money, Sally," he growled. "Get me the phone. I'll call the cops."**

"Jerk!" a few people ylled.

**"Gabe, no!"**

**He raised his eyebrows. "Did you just say 'no'? You think I'm gonna put up with this punk again? I can still press charges against him for ruining my Camaro."**

"It wasn't his fault you idiot!" Clarisse shot.

**"But-"**

**He raised his hand, and my mother flinched.**

**For the first time, I realized something. Gabe had hit my mother.**

"WHAT?!" everyone yelled.

Paul, Poseidon and Percy looked murderous.

Poseidon got of his seat and went down to the streets of mortal Manhatten.

No one was worried.

**I didn't know when, or how much. But I was sure he'd done it. Maybe it had been going on for years, when I wasn't around.**

**A balloon of anger started expanding in my chest. I came toward Gabe, instinctively taking my pen out of my pocket.**

"I wish, just this once, that my sword worked on mortals" Percy said.

**He just laughed. "What, punk? You gonna write on me? You touch me, and you are going to jail forever, you understand?"**

"If only he knew" someone said.

**"Hey, Gabe," his friend Eddie interrupted. "He's just a kid."**

"I liked him...he was nice to me. He paid me back the day after if Gabe took money from me because he usually won it ecause he ALWAYS out gambled him" Percy said.

**Gabe looked at him resentfully and mimicked in a falsetto voice: "Just a kid."**

**His other friends laughed like idiots.**

"They are idiots" Apollo said, he was worried because his sister hadn't returned.

**"I'll be nice to you, punk." Gabe showed me his tobacco-stained teeth. "I'll give you five minutes to get your stuff and clear out. After that, I call the police."**

**"Gabe!" my mother pleaded.**

**"He ran away," Gabe told her. "Let him stay gone."**

"I wanted to be gone "Percy said "the only reason I didn't turn around and walk away was because my mom was there and if he touched her I was gonna kill him.

Sally smiled at Percy.

"Just as protective as your Father" she said.

**I was itching to uncap Riptide, but even if I did, the blade wouldn't hurt humans. And Gabe, by the loosest definition, was human.**

"Sadly" Luke said.

**My mother took my arm. "Please, Percy. Come on. We'll go to your room."**

**I let her pull me away, my hands still trembling with rage.**

**My room had been completely filled with Gabe's junk. I here were stacks of used car batteries, a rotting bouquet of sympathy flowers with a card from somebody who'd seen his Barbara Walters interview.**

**"Gabe is just upset, honey," my mother told me. "I'll talk to him later. I'm sure it will work out."**

**"Mom, it'll never work out. Not as long as Gabe's here."**

**She wrung her hands nervously. "I can … I'll take you to work with me for the rest of the summer. In the fall, maybe there's another boarding school-"**

**"Mom."**

**She lowered her eyes. "I'm trying, Percy. I just… I need some time."**

"This is what every mom should be like!" Hera said gesturing to Sally.

**A package appeared on my bed. At least, I could've sworn it hadn't been there a moment before.**

**It was a battered cardboard box about the right size to fit a basketball. The address on the mailing slip was in my own handwriting:**

**The Gods**

**Mount Olympus**

**600th Floor,**

**Empire State Building**

**New York, NY**

**With best wishes,**

**PERCY JACKSON**

"Oh!" it was making sense to everyone now.

**Over the top in black marker, in a man's clear, bold print, was the address of our apartment, and the words: RETURN TO SENDER.**

**Suddenly I understood what Poseidon had told me on Olympus.**

**A package. A decision.**

**Whatever else you do, know that you are mine. You are a true son of the Sea God.**

**I looked at my mother. "Mom, do you want Gabe gone?**

**"Percy, it isn't that simple. I-"**

"Now it is" Connor said smiling evily.

**"Mom, just tell me. That jerk has been hitting you. Do you want him gone or not?"**

**She hesitated, then nodded almost imperceptibly. "Yes, Percy. I do. And I'm trying to get up my courage to tell him. But you can't do this for me. You can't solve my problems."**

"This problem he can" Hera said.

**I looked at the box.**

**I could solve her problem. I wanted to slice that package open, plop it on the poker table, and take out what was inside. I could start my very own statue garden, right there in the living room.**

**That's what a Greek hero would do in the stories, I thought. That's what Gabe deserves.**

"But your not a normal Greek hero" Annabeth said "you're better than them."

"And you're btter than me" Percy replied immediatle and kissed her.

**But a hero's story always ended in tragedy. Poseidon had told me that.**

**I remembered the Underworld. I thought about Gabe's spirit drifting forever in the Fields of Asphodel, or condemned to some hideous torture behind the barbed wire of the Fields of Punishment-an eternal poker game, sitting up to his waist in boiling oil listening to opera music. Did I have the right to send someone there? Even Gabe?**

**A month ago, I wouldn't have hesitated. Now …**

**"I can do it," I told my mom. "One look inside this box, and he'll never bother you again."**

**She glanced at the package, and seemed to understand immediately. "No, Percy," she said, stepping away. "You can't."**

**"Poseidon called you a queen," I told her. "He said he hadn't met a woman like you in a thousand years."**

**Her cheeks flushed. "Percy-"**

"She still likes you!" Aphrodite cooed, being careful not to say love for Athena's sake.

Sally blushed.

**"You deserve better than this, Mom. You should go to college, get your degree. You can write your novel, meet a nice guy maybe, live in a nice house. You don't need to protect me anymore by staying with Gabe. Let me get rid of him."**

**She wiped a tear off her cheek. "You sound so much like your father," she said. "He offered to stop the tide for me once. He offered to build me a palace at the bottom of the sea. He thought he could solve all my problems with a wave of his hand."**

"Awwww" all the girls cooed and Poseidon blushed.

**"What's wrong with that?"**

**Her multicolored eyes seemed to search inside me. "I think you know, Percy. I think you're enough like me to understand. If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself. I can't let a god take care of me … or my son. I have to … find the courage on my own. Your quest has reminded me of that."**

**We listened to the sound of poker chips and swearing, ESPN from the living room television.**

**"I'll leave the box," I said. "If he threatens you …"**

**She looked pale, but she nodded. "Where will you go, Percy?"**

**"Half-Blood Hill."**

**"For the summer … or forever?"**

"Summer" Percy said.

**"I guess that depends."**

**We locked eyes, and I sensed that we had an agreement. We would see how things stood at the end of the summer.**

**She kissed my forehead. "You'll be a hero, Percy. You'll be the greatest of all."**

"You were right Mrs. Blofis" Annabeth smiled at Sally.

**I took one last look around my bedroom. I had a feeling I'd never see it again. Then I walked with my mother to the front door.**

"I didn't" Percy said and a few people looked confused.

**"Leaving so soon, punk?" Gabe called after me. "Good riddance."**

**I had one last twinge of doubt. How could I turn down the perfect chance to take revenge on him? I was leaving here without saving my mother.**

**"Hey, Sally," he yelled. "What about that meat loaf, huh?"**

**A steely look of anger flared in my mother's eyes, and I thought, just maybe, I was leaving her in good hands after all. Her own.**

Percy smiled, knowing his mom could handle herself.

"You would've made a fantastic demigod!" a demigod said and Sally blushed even more.

**"The meat loaf is coming right up, dear," she told Gabe. "Meat loaf surprise."**

**She looked at me, and winked.**

"YES!" everyone said.

"You did it!" Thalia said and hugged Sally.

Everyone cheered.

**The last thing I saw as the door swung closed was my mother staring at Gabe, as if she were contemplating how he would look as a garden statue.**

"Thats it" Katie said "who's next?"

Piper asked to read.

Katie handed the book to the daughter of Aphrodite and she opened up to the last chapter of the first book!

* * *

**one more chapter everyone!:) yes!**

**check out the new poll and the new story! **

**Friend Brother Enemy Memory**

**see ya!:D**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


	28. The Prophecy Comes True

**here it is guys...the last chapter! i hope you all love it! im to lazy to add any review comments so...enjoy!**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**

* * *

**"The prophecy comes true, "** Piper read and Percy paled.

"Okay I need to say something!" Percy said jumping up.

"There is going to be someone in this chapter who will say some stuff and do some stuff. This person is very important in these books and is the main plot! Please do not attack them! Seeing as though, I have no idea why the Fates did this, they are in this room! No one attacks them! And I'm sorry to one god it will effect very badly"

Percy sat back down and a lot of Camp Half Blood's demigods were looking at Luke.

**We were the first heroes to return alive to Half-Blood Hill since Luke, so of course everybody treated us as if we'd won some reality-TV contest. According to camp tradition, we wore laurel wreaths to a big feast prepared in our honor, then led a procession down to the bonfire, where we got to burn the burial shrouds our cabins had made for us in our absence.**

"We made Prissy's" Clarisse said and laughed.

**Annabeth's shroud was so beautiful-gray silk with embroidered owls-I told her it seemed a shame not to bury her in it. She punched me and told me to shut up.**

Everyone laughed.

**Being the son of Poseidon, I didn't have any cabin mates, so the Ares cabin had volunteered to make my shroud. They'd taken an old bedsheet and painted smiley faces with X'ed-out eyes around the border, and the word LOSER painted really big in the middle.**

**It was fun to burn.**

"It was" Percy said.

**As Apollo's cabin led the sing-along and passed out s'mores, I was surrounded by my old Hermes cabinmates, Annabeth's friends from Athena, and Grover's satyr buddies, who were admiring the brand-new searcher's license he'd received from the Council of Cloven Elders. **

Dionysus nodded.

**The council had called Grover's performance on the quest "Brave to the point of indigestion. Horns-and-whiskers above anything we have seen in the past."**

Dionysus, along with everyone else, nodded in agreement.

"It is true Grover" Dionysus actually smiled at Grover who smiled back.

**The only ones not in a party mood were Clarisse and her cabinmates, whose poisonous looks told me they'd never forgive me for disgracing their dad.**

"We still don't forgive you" Clarisse said.

"I know" Percy laughed "and I'm okay with it."

**That was okay with me.**

**Even Dionysus's welcome-home speech wasn't enough to dampen my spirits. "Yes, yes, so the little brat didn't get himself killed and now he'll have an even bigger head. Well, huzzah for that. In other announcements, there will be no canoe races this Saturday…."**

"Nice one" Apollo said.

Artemis had not come back and neither had Poseidon.

"I'm worried about Poseidon" Athena said.

"He probably just went and kicked Gabe's ungly, fat ass" Percy said.

"Hope so" a few murmered.

**I moved back into cabin three, but it didn't feel so lonely anymore. I had my friends to train with during the day. At night, I lay awake and listened to the sea, knowing my father was out there. Maybe he wasn't quite sure about me yet, maybe he hadn't even wanted me born, but he was watching. And so far, he was proud of what I'd done.**

"Very proud" Poseidon said coming back in.

He sat down with Athena again and didn't say anything.

"What?" he asked and everyone looked back to the book.

**As for my mother, she had a chance at a new life. Her letter arrived a week after I got back to camp. She told me Gabe had left mysteriously-disappeared off the face of the planet, in fact. She'd reported him missing to the police, but she had a funny feeling they would never find him.**

Everyone cheered for her.

**On a completely unrelated subject, she'd sold her first life-size concrete sculpture, entitled The Poker Player, to a collector, through an art gallery in Soho. She'd gotten so much money for it, she'd put a deposit down on a new apartment and made a payment on her first semester's tuition at NYU. The Soho gallery was clamoring for more of her work, which they called "a huge step forward in super-ugly neorealism."**

Everyone laughed.

"It's good you're going to college" Athena smiled at Sally.

**But don't worry, my mom wrote. I'm done with sculpture. I've disposed of that box of tools you left me. It's time for me to turn to writing.**

**At the bottom, she wrote a P.S.: Percy, I've found a good private school here in the city. I've put a deposit down to hold you a spot, in case you want to enroll for seventh grade. You could live at home. But if you want to go year-round at Half-Blood Hill, I'll understand.**

"I come home every year" Percy smiled.

Hera also smiled, Percy was such a good boy.

**I folded the note carefully and set it on my bedside table. Every night before I went to sleep, I read it again, and I tried to decide how to answer her.**

**On the Fourth of July, the whole camp gathered at the beach for a fireworks display by cabin nine. Being Hephaestus's kids, they weren't going to settle for a few lame red-white-and-blue explosions. They'd anchored a barge offshore and loaded it with rockets the size of Patriot missiles. According to Annabeth, who'd seen the show before, the blasts would be sequenced so tightly they'd look like frames of animation across the sky. The finale was supposed to be a couple of hundred-foot-tall Spartan warriors who would crackle to life above the ocean, fight a battle, then explode into a million colors.**

**As Annabeth and I were spreading a picnic blanket,**

"You two are on a date!" Aphrodite said.

"No we aren't" Percy and Annabeth said "not yet anyway."

**Grover showed up to tell us good-bye. He was dressed in his usual jeans and T-shirt and sneakers, but in the last few weeks he'd started to look older, almost high-school age. His goatee had gotten thicker. He'd put on weight. His horns had grown at least an inch, so he now had to wear his rasta cap all the time to pass as human.**

**"I'm off," he said. "I just came to say … well, you know."**

**I tried to feel happy for him. After all, it wasn't every day a satyr got permission to go look for the great god Pan. But it was hard saying good-bye. I'd only known Grover a year, yet he was my oldest friend.**

Hestia smiled.

"You are a good friend Perseus" she smiled.

"Thank you Hestia" Percy smiled.

**Annabeth gave him a hug. She told him to keep his fake feet on.**

A few people laughed.

**I asked him where he was going to search first.**

**"Kind of a secret," he said, looking embarrassed. "I wish you could come with me, guys, but humans and Pan …"**

**"We understand," Annabeth said. "You got enough tin cans for the trip?"**

**"Yeah."**

**"And you remembered your reed pipes?"**

**"Jeez, Annabeth," he grumbled. "You're like an old mama goat."**

More laughing.

**But he didn't really sound annoyed.**

**He gripped his walking stick and slung a backpack over his shoulder. He looked like any hitchhiker you might see on an American highway-nothing like the little runty boy I used to defend from bullies at Yancy Academy.**

**"Well," he said, "wish me luck."**

"Good luck!" Connor, Travis and Apollo said, Hermes still was lost in thought.

**He gave Annabeth another hug. He clapped me on the shoulder, then headed back through the dunes.**

**Fireworks exploded to life overhead: Hercules killing the Nemean lion, Artemis chasing the boar, **

Hermes smiled.

**George Washington (who, by the way, was a son of Athena) crossing the Delaware.**

"Of course he was" Athena said.

**"Hey, Grover," I called.**

**He turned at the edge of the woods.**

**"Wherever you're going-I hope they make good enchiladas."**

Everyone chuckled.

**Grover grinned, and then he was gone, the trees closing around him.**

**"We'll see him again," Annabeth said.**

"We did" Percy said.

**I tried to believe it. The fact that no searcher had ever come back in two thousand years … well, I decided not to think about that. Grover would be the first. He had to be.**

"I was!" Grover said.

**July passed.**

**I spent my days devising new strategies for capture-the-flag and making alliances with the other cabins to keep the banner out of Ares's hands. I got to the top of the climbing wall for the first time without getting scorched by lava.**

Everyone cheered and clapped.

**From time to time, I'd walk past the Big House, glance up at the attic windows, and think about the Oracle. I tried to convince myself that its prophecy had come to completion.**

"I don't see how it didn't" Athena said.

**You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.**

"Ares" a few people said.

**Been there, done that-even though the traitor god had turned out to be Ares rather than Hades.**

"We told you all it wasn't our dad!" Hazel said.

**You shall find what was stolen, and see it safe returned.**

"My bolt" Zeus said.

"My helm" Hades said.

**Check. One master bolt delivered. One helm of darkness back on Hades's oily head.**

"I do not have an oily head!" Hades yelled.

A few people coughed.

"Yes you do" Poseidon said.

**You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.**

This was the part that Athena was worried about.

Was it Ares?

**This line still bothered me. Ares had pretended to be my friend, then betrayed me. That must be what the Oracle meant….**

"Probably" Athena said.

**And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.**

**I had failed to save my mom, but only because I'd let her save herself, and I knew that was the right thing.**

**So why was I still uneasy?**

"You knew that you were wrong" Annabeth said to Percy.

**The last night of the summer session came all too quickly.**

**The campers had one last meal together. We burned part of our dinner for the gods. At the bonfire, the senior counselors awarded the end-of-summer beads.**

Percy looked down at his necklace that proudly held all 5 beads on it.

Annabeth looked at hers that held about 2 times that amount.

**I got my own leather necklace, and when I saw the bead for my first summer, I was glad the firelight covered my blushing. The design was pitch black, with a sea-green trident shimmering in the center.**

Poseidon smiled.

Clarisse, the Stolls, Katie, Percy, Annabeth, Chris, and Grover looked at the bead they all proudly carried on their necklaces.

"You all have it?" Demeter asked.

They nodded.

"It commemorates the first Son of the Sea God at Camp and the quest he took the Underworld to stop a war" Annabeth said "I'm proud to have it on my necklace."

The demigods nodded in agreement.

**"The choice was unanimous," Luke announced. "This bead commemorates the first Son of the Sea God at this camp, and the quest he undertook into the darkest part of the Underworld to stop a war!"**

A few people laughed as Annabeth blushed.

**The entire camp got to their feet and cheered. Even Ares's cabin felt obliged to stand. Athena's cabin steered Annabeth to the front so she could share in the applause.**

"No they were pushing you up there so you could stand next to your boyfriend" Clarisse said and Annabeth cblushed even more.

"He wasn't my boyfriend Clarisse!" Annabeth said.

"Oh right! The boy you wanted to be your boyfriend!" Clarisse retorted.

"Maybe" Annabeth said blushing even more.

Everyone laughed.

**I'm not sure I'd ever felt as happy or sad as I did at that moment. I'd finally found a family, people who cared about me and thought I'd done something right. And in the morning, most of them would be leaving for the year.**

**The next morning, I found a form letter on my bedside table.**

**I knew Dionysus must've filled it out, because he stubbornly insisted on getting my name wrong:**

**Dear Peter Johnson ,**

"He never gets anyone's name right" Bekendorf said.

"He calls me Sabrina all the time" Silena said.

"I get Peter" Percy said.

"Nichole" Nico said.

"Carol" Clarisse growled.

"Annibell" Annabeth said.

"Chase" Bekendorf said.

"Conney" Connor said.

"Tommy" Travis said.

"He gets my name right" Thalia said.

Everyone looked at her.

"Lucky" Connor said.

**If you intend to stay at Camp Half-Blood year-round, you must inform the Big House by noon today. If you do not announce your intentions, we will assume you have vacated your cabin or died a horrible death. Cleaning harpies will begin work at sundown. They will be authorized to eat any unregistered campers. All personal articles left behind will be incinerated in the lava pit.**

**Have a nice day!**

**Mr. D (Dionysus)**

**Camp Director, Olympian Council #12**

**That's another thing about ADHD. Deadlines just aren't real to me until I'm staring one in the face. Summer was over, and I still hadn't answered my mother, or the camp, about whether I'd be staying. Now I had only a few hours to decide.**

**The decision should have been easy. I mean, nine months of hero training or nine months of sitting in a classroom-duh.**

"Hero training" everyone said except for Athena.

**But there was my mom to consider. For the first time, I had the chance to live with her for a whole year, without Gabe. I had a chance be at home and knock around the city in my free time. I remembered what Annabeth had said so long ago on our quest: The real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not.**

**I thought about the fate of Thalia, daughter of Zeus. I wondered how many monsters would attack me if I left Half-Blood Hill. **

"A lot" Chiron said.

**If I stayed in one place for a whole school year, without Chiron or my friends around to help me, would my mother and I even survive until the next summer? That was assuming the spelling tests and five-paragraph essays didn't kill me. I decided I'd go down to the arena and do some sword practice. Maybe that would clear my head.**

"Ususally it does" Percy said.

"Why not this time?" Apollo asked.

"You'll see" Percy promised.

**The campgrounds were mostly deserted, shimmering in the August heat. All the campers were in their cabins packing up, or running around with brooms and mops, getting ready for final inspection. Argus was helping some of the Aphrodite kids haul their Gucci suitcases and makeup kits over the hill, where the camp's shuttle bus would be waiting to take them to the airport.**

**Don't think about leaving yet, I told myself. Just train.**

**I got to the sword-fighters arena and found that Luke had had the same idea. His gym bag was plopped at the edge of the stage. He was working solo, whaling on battle dummies with a sword I'd never seen before. It must've been a regular steel blade, because he was slashing the dummies' heads right off, stabbing through their straw-stuffed guts. His orange counselor's shirt was dripping with sweat. His expression was so intense, his life might've really been in danger. I watched, fascinated, as he disemboweled the whole row of dummies, hacking off limbs and basically reducing them to a pile of straw and armor.**

"They're both good" Poseidon said.

**They were only dummies, but I still couldn't help being awed by Luke's skill. The guy was an incredible fighter. It made me wonder, again, how he possibly could've failed at his quest.**

**Finally, he saw me, and stopped mid-swing. "Percy."**

**"Um, sorry," I said, embarrassed. "I just-"**

**"It's okay," he said, lowering his sword. "Just doing some last-minute practice."**

**"Those dummies won't be bothering anybody anymore."**

A few people chuckled, some knew what was going to happened.

**Luke shrugged. "We build new ones every summer."**

**Now that his sword wasn't swirling around, I could see something odd about it. The blade was two different types of metal-one edge bronze, the other steel.**

**Luke noticed me looking at it. "Oh, this? New toy. This is Backbiter."**

"I don't like that sword" Percy grumbled under his breath.

**"Backbiter?"**

**Luke turned the blade in the light so it glinted wickedly. "One side is celestial bronze. The other is tempered steel. Works on mortals and immortals both."**

"Why would you want to hurt mortals or immortals?" Athena asked Luke.

Luke shrugged.

**I thought about what Chiron had told me when I started my quest-that a hero should never harm mortals unless absolutely necessary.**

**"I didn't know they could make weapons like that."**

**"They probably can't," Luke agreed. "It's one of a kind."**

"Where could you have gotten it from?" Hephaestus asked and Luke shrugged.

**He gave me a tiny smile, then slid the sword into its scabbard. "Listen, I was going to come looking for you. What do you say we go down to the woods one last time, look for something to fight?"**

**I don't know why I hesitated. I should've felt relieved that Luke was being so friendly. Ever since I'd gotten back from the quest, he'd been acting a little distant. I was afraid he might resent me for all the attention I'd gotten.**

Poseidon narrowed his eyes.

**"You think it's a good idea?" I asked. "I mean-"**

**"Aw, come on." He rummaged in his gym bag and pulled out a six-pack of Cokes. "Drinks are on me."**

**I stared at the Cokes, wondering where the heck he'd gotten them. There were no regular mortal sodas at the camp store. No way to smuggle them in unless you talked to a satyr, maybe.**

**Of course, the magic dinner goblets would fill with anything you want, but it just didn't taste the same as a real Coke, straight out of the can.**

**Sugar and caffeine. My willpower crumbled.**

"Of course it did" Nico joked.

**"Sure," I decided. "Why not?"**

**We walked down to the woods and kicked around for some kind of monster to fight, but it was too hot. All the monsters with any sense must've been taking siestas in their nice cool caves.**

"A siesta sounds like a good idea" Leo yawned.

Everyone looked very tired and ready to pass out.

Percy had to stay awake to keep people from attacking Luke.

Annabeth was asleep.

Her head was laying on Percy's chest and her hand resting in front of it and Percy had his arm around her.

_"She's so cute when she's sleeping"_ he thought.

Percy was stroking her hair as she slept thorugh the last chapter.

**We found a shady spot by the creek where I'd broken Clarisse's spear during my first capture the flag game. We sat on a big rock, drank our Cokes, and watched the sunlight in the woods.**

**After a while Luke said, "You miss being on a quest?"**

**"With monsters attacking me every three feet? Are you kidding?"**

**Luke raised an eyebrow.**

**"Yeah, I miss it," I admitted. "You?"**

**A shadow passed over his face.**

Poseidon still had his eyes narrowed and Athena's mind was racing.

Piper yawned through her reading.

Jason smiled and took the book from her and she curled up next to him, with his arm around her, and fell asleep with her head on his shoulder.

**I was used to hearing from the girls how good-looking Luke was, but at the moment, he looked weary, and angry, and not at all handsome. His blond hair was gray in the sunlight. The scar on his face looked deeper than usual. I could imagine him as an old man.**

**"I've lived at Half-Blood Hill year-round since I was fourteen," he told me. "Ever since Thalia … well, you know. I trained, and trained, and trained. I never got to be a normal teenager, out there in the real world. Then they threw me one quest, and when I came back, it was like, 'Okay, ride's over. Have a nice life.'"**

A few other gods narrowed thier eyes and Hermes's head snapped up.

_"So soon?"_ he asked himself _"You couldn't wait till he was older?"_

**He crumpled his Coke can and threw into the creek, which really shocked me. One of the first things you learn at Camp Half-Blood is: Don't litter. You'll hear from the nymphs and the naiads. They'll get even. You'll crawl into bed one night and find your sheets filled with centipedes and mud.**

"You do not want that" Travis said seeing as htough his brother was asleep with his mouth open in a snore.

**"The heck with laurel wreaths," Luke said. "I'm not going to end up like those dusty trophies in the Big House attic."**

**"You make it sound like you're leaving."**

A few people looked confused, Luke amoung them.

**Luke gave me a twisted smile. "Oh, I'm leaving, all right, Percy. I brought you down here to say good-bye."**

**He snapped his fingers. A small fire burned a hole in the ground at my feet. Out crawled something glistening black, about the size of my hand. A scorpion.**

Poseidon, Zeus and a few other people looked at Luke.

**I started to go for my pen.**

**"I wouldn't," Luke cautioned. "Pit scorpions can jump up to fifteen feet. Its stinger can pierce right through your clothes. You'll be dead in sixty seconds."**

"HERMES!" Poseidon yelled and Hermes jumped awake.

"Wha?" Hermes asked.

"Why is your son sending a pit scorpion after my son?!" Poseidon demanded glaring at Hermes.

"Uncle, this is in the future! I don't know!" Hermes said.

Poseidon was glairng at Luke now but Hermes stepped between them.

"Don't look at him like that" Hermes said "he hasn't done anything yet."

Percy got up, jostling Annabeth awake.

"Hermes is right Dad" Percy said "Luke hasn't done anything yet."

"The Fates also said not to harm anyone and not to judge the people in the books" Annabeth said.

Poseidon sat back down agreeing to not hurt the Son of Hermes.

Luke sighed in relief.

**"Luke, what-"**

**Then it hit me.**

**You will be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.**

**"You," I said.**

Hermes looked ready to cry.

**He stood calmly and brushed off his jeans.**

**The scorpion paid him no attention. It kept its beady black eyes on me, clamping its pincers as it crawled onto my shoe.**

Annabeth grabbed Percy's hand, she wasn't there for this.

**"I saw a lot out there in the world, Percy," Luke said. "Didn't you feel it-the darkness gathering, the monsters growing stronger? Didn't you realize how useless it all is? All the heroics-being pawns of the gods. They should've been overthrown thousands of years ago, but they've hung on, thanks to us half-bloods."**

**I couldn't believe this was happening.**

"Neither can I" Hermes said softly.

**"Luke … you're talking about our parents," I said.**

The gods nodded.

**He laughed. "That's supposed to make me love them? Their precious 'Western civilization is a disease, Percy. It's killing the world. The only way to stop it is to burn it to the ground, start over with something more honest."**

**"You're as crazy as Ares."**

Ares huffed.

**His eyes flared. "Ares is a fool. He never realized the true master he was serving. If I had time, Percy, I could explain. But I'm afraid you won't live that long."**

Poseidon was glaring at Luke, who was sinking down in his seat under the glare from everyone.

**The scorpion crawled onto my pants leg.**

Everyone tensed.

Annabeth had Percy's hand tightly in hers.

Saly was as pale as Hades.

Athena was trying to soothe Poseidon.

"He's right there Poseidon...he's okay" she was saying but Poseidon wasn't calming down.

**There had to be a way out of this. I needed time to think.**

**"Kronos," I said. "That's who you serve."**

Now Zeus was glaring at Luke.

**The air got colder.**

**"You should be careful with names," Luke warned.**

**"Kronos got you to steal the master bolt and the helm. He spoke to you in your dreams."**

Hades glared at Luke.

**Luke's eye twitched. "He spoke to you, too, Percy. You should've listened."**

**"He's brainwashing you, Luke."**

**"You're wrong. He showed me that my talents are being wasted. You know what my quest was two years ago, Percy? My father, Hermes, wanted me to steal a golden apple from the Garden of the Hesperides and return it to Olympus. After all the training I'd done, that was the best he could think up."**

**"That's not an easy quest," I said. "Hercules did it."**

**"Exactly," Luke said. "Where's the glory in repeating what others have done?**

"It's the honor of getting a quest not about the glory" Athena said taking a break from trying to comfort Poseidon.

You could see different emotions flash across his face; confusion, anger, and belief.

**All the gods know how to do is replay their past. My heart wasn't in it. The dragon in the garden gave me this"-he pointed angrily at his scar-"and when I came back, all I got was pity. I wanted to pull Olympus down stone by stone right then, but I bided my time. I began to dream of Kronos. He convinced me to steal something worthwhile, something no hero had ever had the courage to take. When we went on that winter-solstice field trip, while the other campers were asleep, I snuck into the throne room and took Zeus's master bolt right from his chair. Hades's helm of darkness, too. You wouldn't believe how easy it was. The Olympians are so arrogant; they never dreamed someone would dare steal from them. Their security is horrible. I was halfway across New Jersey before I heard the storms rumbling, and I knew they'd discovered my theft."**

Everyone glared at Luke for putting Percy in danger.

**The scorpion was sitting on my knee now, staring at me with its glittering eyes. I tried to keep my voice level. "So why didn't you bring the items to Kronos?"**

**Luke's smile wavered. "I … I got overconfident. Zeus sent out his sons and daughters to find the stolen bolt- Artemis, Apollo, my father, Hermes. But it was Ares who caught me. I could have beaten him, but I wasn't careful enough. He disarmed me, took the items of power, threatened to return them to Olympus and burn me alive. Then Kronos's voice came to me and told me what to say. I put the idea in Ares's head about a great war between the gods. I said all he had to do was hide the items away for a while and watch the others fight. Ares got a wicked gleam in his eyes. I knew he was hooked. He let me go, and I returned to Olympus before anyone noticed my absence." Luke drew his new sword. He ran his thumb down the flat of the blade, as if he were hypnotized by its beauty. "Afterward, the Lord of the Titans … h-he punished me with nightmares. I swore not to fail again. Back at Camp Half-Blood, in my dreams, I was told that a second hero would arrive, one who could be tricked into taking the bolt and the helm the rest of the way-from Ares down to Tartarus."**

**"You summoned the hellhound, that night in the forest."**

Poseidon looked murderous and was shaking.

Athena was still attempting to calm him down.

**"We had to make Chiron think the camp wasn't safe for you, so he would start you on your quest. We had to confirm his fears that Hades was after you. And it worked."**

Annabeth had her eyes closed and Percy's hand in hers.

**"The flying shoes were cursed," I said. "They were supposed to drag me and the backpack into Tartarus."**

**"And they would have, if you'd been wearing them. But you gave them to the satyr, which wasn't part of the plan. Grover messes up everything he touches. He even confused the curse."**

Grover looked down.

"Don't listen to him Grover" Percy said "you're the best satyr ever!"

**Luke looked down at the scorpion, which was now sitting on my thigh. "You should have died in Tartarus, Percy. But don't worry, I'll leave you with my little friend to set things right."**

**"Thalia gave her life to save you," I said, gritting my teeth. "And this is how you repay her?"**

Thalia looked down and Luke looked ashamed.

**"Don't speak of Thalia!" he shouted. "The gods let her die! That's one of the many things they will pay for."**

**"You're being used, Luke. You and Ares both. Don't listen to Kronos."**

**"I've been used?" Luke's voice turned shrill. "Look at yourself. What has your dad ever done for you? Kronos will rise. You've only delayed his plans. He will cast the Olympians into Tartarus and drive humanity back to their caves. All except the strongest-the ones who serve him."**

**"Call off the bug," I said. "If you're so strong, fight me yourself"**

**Luke smiled. "Nice try, Percy. But I'm not Ares. You can't bait me. My lord is waiting, and he's got plenty of quests for me to undertake."**

**"Luke-"**

**"Good-bye, Percy. There is a new Golden Age coming. You won't be part of it."**

**He slashed his sword in an arc and disappeared in a ripple of darkness.**

**The scorpion lunged.**

Everyone tensed and sucked in a breath.

**I swatted it away with my hand and uncapped my sword. The thing jumped at me and I cut it in half in midair.**

**I was about to congratulate myself until I looked down at my hand. My palm had a huge red welt, oozing and smoking with yellow guck. The thing had gotten me after all.**

"No" Poseidon breathed.

**My ears pounded. My vision went foggy. The water, I thought. It healed me before.**

"It won't work" Poseidon said miserably.

**I stumbled to the creek and submerged my hand, but nothing seemed to happen. The poison was too strong. My vision was getting dark. I could barely stand up.**

**Sixty seconds, Luke had told me.**

**I had to get back to camp. If I collapsed out here, my body would be dinner for a monster. Nobody would ever know what had happened.**

**My legs felt like lead. My forehead was burning. I stumbled toward the camp, and the nymphs stirred from their trees.**

**"Help," I croaked. "Please …"**

**Two of them took my arms, pulling me along. I remember making it to the clearing, a counselor shouting for help, a centaur blowing a conch horn.**

**Then everything went black.**

All color left from Poseidon's face.

**I woke with a drinking straw in my mouth. I was sipping something that tasted like liquid chocolate-chip cookies. Nectar.**

Everyone let out the breath they were holding.

**I opened my eyes.**

**I was propped up in bed in the sickroom of the Big House, my right hand bandaged like a club. Argus stood guard in the corner. Annabeth sat next to me, holding my nectar glass and dabbing a washcloth on my forehead.**

**"Here we are again," I said.**

**"You idiot," Annabeth said, which is how I knew she was overjoyed to see me conscious. **

"I was" Annabeth said and Percy kissed her.

"I wouldn't leave for good" Percy promised.

"You'd better not" Annabeth said.

**"You were green and turning gray when we found you. If it weren't for Chiron's healing …"**

**"Now, now," Chiron's voice said. "Percy's constitution deserves some of the credit."**

**He was sitting near the foot of my bed in human form, which was why I hadn't noticed him yet. His lower half was magically compacted into the wheelchair, his upper half dressed in a coat and tie. He smiled, but his face looked weary and pale, the way it did when he'd been up all night grading Latin papers.**

**"How are you feeling?" he asked.**

**"Like my insides have been frozen, then microwaved"**

"And you know what that feels like how...?" Leo asked and a few people laughed.

**"Apt, considering that was pit scorpion venom. Now you must tell me, if you can, exactly what happened."**

**Between sips of nectar, I told them the story.**

**The room was quiet for a long time.**

**"I can't believe that Luke …" Annabeth's voice faltered. Her expression turned angry and sad. "Yes. Yes, I can believe it. May the gods curse him…. He was never the same after his quest."**

**"This must be reported to Olympus," Chiron murmured. "I will go at once."**

**"Luke is out there right now," I said. "I have to go after him."**

**Chiron shook his head. "No, Percy. The gods-"**

**"Won't even talk about Kronos," I snapped. "Zeus declared the matter closed!"**

**"Percy, I know this is hard. But you must not rush out for vengeance. You aren't ready."**

**I didn't like it, but part of me suspected Chiron was right. One look at my hand, and I knew I wasn't going to be sword fighting any time soon. "Chiron … your prophecy from the Oracle … it was about Kronos, wasn't it? Was I in it? And Annabeth?"**

"Sadly yes" Apollo, Athena, Poseidon and Chiron said.

**Chiron glanced nervously at the ceiling. "Percy, it isn't my place-"**

**"You've been ordered not to talk to me about it, haven't you?"**

**His eyes were sympathetic, but sad. "You will be a great hero, child. I will do my best to prepare you. But if I'm right about the path ahead of you …"**

**Thunder boomed overhead, rattling the windows.**

**"All right!" Chiron shouted. "Fine!"**

**He sighed in frustration. "The gods have their reasons, Percy. Knowing too much of your future is never a good thing."**

**"We can't just sit back and do nothing," I said.**

**"We will not sit back," Chiron promised. "But you must be careful. Kronos wants you to come unraveled. He wants your life disrupted, your thoughts clouded with fear and anger. Do not give him what he wants. Train patiently. Your time will come."**

**"Assuming I live that long."**

"Again! Pessimistic!" someone said and a few weak chuckles were heard.

**Chiron put his hand on my ankle. "You'll have to trust me, Percy. You will live. But first you must decide your path for the coming year. I cannot tell you the right choice…." I got the feeling that he had a very definite opinion, and it was taking all his willpower not to advise me. "But you must decide whether to stay at Camp Half-Blood year-round, or return to the mortal world for seventh grade and be a summer camper. Think on that. When I get back from Olympus, you must tell me your decision."**

**I wanted to protest. I wanted to ask him more questions. But his expression told me there could be no more discussion; he had said as much as he could.**

**"I'll be back as soon as I can," Chiron promised. "Argus will watch over you."**

**He glanced at Annabeth. "Oh, and, my dear … whenever you're ready, they're here."**

**"Who's here?" I asked.**

**Nobody answered.**

"I hate it when they do that" Percy grumbled.

**Chiron rolled himself out of the room. I heard the wheels of his chair clunk carefully down the front steps, two at a time.**

**Annabeth studied the ice in my drink.**

**"What's wrong?" I asked her.**

**"Nothing." She set the glass on the table. "I … just took your advice about something. You … um … need anything?"**

**"Yeah. Help me up. I want to go outside."**

**"Percy, that isn't a good idea."**

**I slid my legs out of bed. Annabeth caught me before I could crumple to the floor. A wave of nausea rolled over me.**

**Annabeth said, "I told you …"**

**"I'm fine," I insisted. I didn't want to lie in bed like an invalid while Luke was out there planning to destroy the Western world.**

**I managed a step forward. Then another, still leaning heavily on Annabeth. Argus followed us outside, but he kept his distance.**

**By the time we reached the porch, my face was beaded with sweat. My stomach had twisted into knots. But I had managed to make it all the way to the railing.**

**It was dusk. The camp looked completely deserted. The cabins were dark and the volleyball pit silent. No canoes cut the surface of the lake. Beyond the woods and the strawberry fields, the Long Island Sound glittered in the last light of the sun.**

**"What are you going to do?" Annabeth asked me.**

**"I don't know."**

**I told her I got the feeling Chiron wanted me to stay year-round, to put in more individual training time, but I wasn't sure that's what I wanted. I admitted I'd feel bad about leaving her alone, though, with only Clarisse for company….**

**Annabeth pursed her lips, then said quietly, "I'm going home for the year, Percy."**

**I stared at her. "You mean, to your dad's?"**

Athena looked up.

**She pointed toward the crest of Half-Blood Hill. Next to Thalia's pine tree, at the very edge of the camp's magical boundaries, a family stood silhouetted-two little children, a woman, and a tall man with blond hair. They seemed to be waiting. The man was holding a backpack that looked like the one Annabeth had gotten from Waterland in Denver.**

Athena smiled.

**"I wrote him a letter when we got back," Annabeth said. "Just like you suggested. I told him … I wa****s sorry. I'd come home for the school year if he still wanted me. He wrote back immediately. We decided … we'd give it another try."**

"I'm proud of you." Athena said.

Annabeth smiled.

"Thank you Percy" Athena said.

"For what?" Percy asked confused.

"For helping my daughter in not only the quest but with her family" Athena said.

"You're welcome Lady Athena" Percy said.

**"That took guts."**

**She pursed her lips. "You won't try anything stupid during the school year, will you? At least … not without sending me an Iris-message?"**

**I managed a smile. "I won't go looking for trouble. I usually don't have to."**

"He has never been more right" Thalia said.

**"When I get back next summer," she said, "we'll hunt down Luke. We'll ask for a quest, but if we don't get approval, we'll sneak off and do it anyway. Agreed?"**

**"Sounds like a plan worthy of Athena."**

Percy and Annabeth smiled cause that just so happened.

**She held out her hand. I shook it.**

**"Take care, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth told me. "Keep your eyes open."**

**"You too, Wise Girl."**

"Thus the beginning of the nicknames!" Nico said.

**I watched her walk up the hill and join her family. She gave her father an awkward hug and looked back at the valley one last time. She touched Thalia's pine tree, then allowed herself to be lead over the crest and into the mortal world.**

**For the first time at camp, I felt truly alone. I looked out at Long Island Sound and I remembered my father saying, The sea does not like to be restrained.**

**I made my decision.**

**I wondered, if Poseidon were watching, would he approve of my choice?**

**"I'll be back next summer," I promised him. "I'll survive until then. Afte****r all, I am your son." I asked Argus to take me down to cabin three, so I could pack my bags for home.**

Everyone cheered as Piper closed the book.

The few people who fell asleep after Poseidon yelled at Hermes woke up with a jolt.

"That's the end of the first book!" Piper said.

"Lets all go to bed now" Hera said and poofed the demigods into their rooms.

Halfway through the night Annabeth had a nightmare.

Percy had disappeared and Annabeth had no clue where he was.

She woke up screaming and shaking.

She slowly got out of bed and made her way to her boyfriend's room.

"Percy?" she asked.

"Wha...huh?" Percy said.

Annaebth walked over and curled up next to him.

"Bad dream?" he asked and she nodded into his chest.

"It's okay Wise Girl" he said and pulled the covers over her and the couple went back to sleep.

* * *

**OH MY GODS! I FINISHED THE FIRST BOOK! I NEVER WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT I WOULD FINISH IT! I am like super duper happy right now!**

**im not doing the second book btw...takes to long...sorry**

**PSYCH! you guys would kill me!:) ill have the next book up soon k guys?**

**~PrincessOfWisdom-AnnabethChase~**


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